black flecked snow
by tinyvoice
Summary: renamed from "pseudo calm" wufeixOC 3x4 1x2 the alliance stumbles onto the existence of a militant colony, the pilots are sent out to be peace envoys
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
Listlessly, Relena sifted through stacks and stacks of paper. They all were ancient to her, from a war fought long ago whose distant memory brought bittersweet tears to her eyes. She flipped through a packet of papers with the OZ emblem emblazoned on each thick page. It had a curious appearance, not like the other files that were all full of charts, graphs, and dates. This one looked like an essay, then she turned a few more pages finding new information, all of it definitely coded. A derisive snort of annoyance disturbed the silence of the library as Relena puzzled at the papers, he sea blue eyes trying to take it apart and piece it together. In the middle of all the code, she spotted something abnormal. It looked like coordinates to somewhere but there was no indication to where it might apply. Deftly, Relena's free hand unclasped the bronze clips on her briefcase, there she deposited the ominous looking packet for further studying. Then, she turned back to the waiting volumes of war papers and continued on with the tedious task of separating the important documents from the trash.  
  
Since the war, she'd decided upon an independent task of sorting war papers, which seemed more of a bother to her at times, but she found solace in the thought that it was a chore requiring only half of her thoughts. The Peacecraft family had year by year become a background murmur since the war was finished. Relena was now twenty-one years old wondering where she was and why.  
  
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After weeks of deciphering the papers, Earth's council finally figured it out. OZ had discovered a colony that had not been marked upon maps. And according to the text, the colony was heavily armed and training for a war that had not been discussed, only mentioned. After sifting through all the information, the council was at a loss. The colony had enough firepower to decimate three galaxies, at least, ten years ago when the report was written. Something must be done.  
  
The colony was a part of the Earth Sphere Alliance whether they would acknowledge it or not. And a resolution must be found on how to rid the colony of all their firepower. In this civilized day and age, weapons were not permitted or needed. Regrettably, the peace that had once made the government so strong in the first place was turning in on itself. Peace was no longer profitable. The Alliance was seeing a way out.  
  
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Relena felt the burden of her formal name lift after all the pats on the back she received for making such a crucial discovery. Darlain and Peacecraft were once again going to be prominent names with good standing.  
  
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The conference room was stagnant while everyone meditated over the new intelligence they had received making the air taste stale and heavy. What they'd received was all estimates and inference but enough to stand everyone's hair on edge. Relena looked over the information one more time frowning. Her gloved hands clasped together in an unconscious prayer for an idea on how to go about dealing with the covert colony. For some reason, Relena just felt the need to save the day, to prove something.  
  
"I think we should send some people to investigate to look around and see if we might even dream of reaching an agreement," she said pensive, her brows furrowing.  
  
"Funny I was just thinking of going in and napalming the hell out of them. Thank you Miss Peacecraft," the rep from L2 said with a hint of sarcasm. He was new, and only about five years older than her. He looked very lizard like with his very angular face and narrow brown eyes.  
  
Relena flinched at the "miss," she couldn't help it that Heero didn't get the hint. She'd seen him a few times at the Preventer meetings she'd been able to attend. But the ex-pilot, Duo, was always around him though killing whatever courage she had to talk or even approach. She'd been after Heero even before the initial war, gaining more and more confidence as he became more and more like a normal boy. After the Marimeia incident, she?d even been able to hold him in her arms. Ofcourse, he was partially passed out, but that small period of bliss had sated her for a while. Then, after that, she'd gone to visit Heero when he was sick one time. However, she ended walking in on something she'd rather not have seen. The braided pilot was leaning over the hospital cot kissing her Heero on the lips. They looked like they'd been busy reading, because before Relena ran away, she spotted a book fallen on the floor with pages strewn about as if the literature had simply burst. They either didn?t hear her frantic escape or they didn't care. She couldn't face either pilot since. She stuffed her obsession with Heero far back in her mind only letting it resurface when she was alone. Lost in her thoughts, she barely heard the meeting progressing around her head until someone nudged her.  
  
"Relena? Do you accept the plan?" the L2 rep frowned at her motioning to the screen at the front of the room. Fifteen pairs or eyes locked on her waiting. Relena gave everything a hurried glance feeling the expectant stares boring into her skin before nodding dumbly not fully comprehending what she was agreeing to.  
  
The world was coming down around her head in waves.  
  
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Later, after the sun had set, Relena sat at the small mahogany desk in her room reading the letter she'd received for the fourth time making sure to analyze each line. It was on the glossy, marble print paper reserved for important documents.  
  
It wasn't very long. It stated plainly what was to be done and what Relena was to do. There was no mention of the other colony reps but the flustered girl paid that no mind. The way the plan fit together was far more important to her. Capable soldiers were to be sent to the secret colony, set up negotiation terms, then, they would strip the colony of all its weapons, and implement Alliance laws upon the citizenry. The way it was phrased made everything seem like a walk in the park.  
  
….What have I agreed to?….This is all out war…She thought and then her heart stopped when she read over the names of the emissaries: Heero Yuy, Quatre Raberba Winner, Trowa Barton, Duo Maxwell, and Wufei Chang. It all became clear then. They wanted to neutralize the colony by force. The ex- pilots weren't exactly graced with good people skills. It was all coming down to: sending the pilots expecting a provocation, an invitation to conflict. Relena hoped to god that the pilots wouldn't accept the mission. She couldn't retract her vote now that it was in, but she could hope.  
  
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As if to spite her, four gundam pilots made their appearance days later. One was on delay to finish a mission. Relena felt her insides twist with the news knowing she'd have to face them all. Her heart fluttered with the thought of seeing Heero but felt heavy thinking of all the pilots and her bad decision. She sat in her room staring at her reflection in the bureau mirror. She looked like a princess, capable of making some of the toughest decisions, but in reality, she was a fainting damsel with her hands in her lap wishing for everything to be over and done with.  
  
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Wufei arrived a week after he accepted the mission. Earth looked very different from when he'd last seen it, probably because he was in blue blood territory. The lawn was neatly trimmed and the trees tailored to look symmetrical. It was boring. He sat in the back of an escort car bemusedly, his thoughts wandering. The other four gundam pilots had been tight knit since the war, and he'd drifted off and been severed from the group completely when he cut his hair. It was about as long as his chin and very professional looking. And he'd given up uniform for smart casuals. No one would recognize him without a photo ID card. His appearance was designed to be deceiving. He went to Preventer meetings unnoticed and the same went for his missions. Walked in and walked right back out. He'd been spending the past five years sharpening his martial arts skills no longer bound to the traditional image. He wondered why he couldn't have ridden to the Stargaze Complex on his own, but five years after the war, security was still very tight.  
  
Staring blankly at his hands, he wondered what the other pilots would think when they saw him now, what they would say. It bothered him little, though. He was his own person and others opinions did not rule him. As funny as it might seem, his maturation hadn't taken effect until after the war. He grew taller, his face developed, and his mind flew in all directions. Realizing that for the first time he wasn't in control, he let his body and mind lead him until he was pieced back together. He learned to truly live. He bought a traditional house with a dojo and garden in seclusion near a small village. In turn, the village was near Shanghai. He loved his home.  
  
A clicking sound outside of his thoughts brought him back to the car. The faux leather he sat on, the smell of cleaner, and the soft music playing from the front seat. He looked up to see the chauffeur's hand tapping the glass and motioning towards the window. He looked outside to see a big building in the distance. He'd last seen it in construction three years ago. It'd grown a dozen wings or so. From where the car was right then, the building looked like a big white blot on the green landscape. Easing himself in his seat, he decided to wait to see the building up close.  
  
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Duo sat by the window looking outside lazily. They hadn't gotten any real information on their mission since arriving at the Stargaze Complex and there was nothing to do but wait for Wufei, the one who had mysteriously disappeared from the galaxy. He and Heero had arrived before anyone else at the Alliance mansion still on a short vacation from their Preventer missions and work in general. To say that the mission mail was unwanted was an understatement. They'd been living normally for once, it'd been going on for a week. After a day of shopping on L2, the couple had returned home to find a computer pad slipped under their door. Duo wished he'd stepped on it before Heero had gotten a chance to see it. Ever the perfect soldier, he couldn't reject it. Duo "hmphed" from the window ledge remembering pleading with Heero not the make them go. But they were packed by the next morning leaving their apartment in the hands of the landlord so they could travel to Earth.  
  
Heero, Trowa, and Quatre were all sitting around doing various things. Heero and Trowa played mahjong, every now and then exchanging strange comments back and forth. Quatre sat in his own respective space reading a thick book. He sat with one knee brought up near his chest and his free arm draped lazily across it. The blond youth had grown to be about one hundred seventy-seven centimeters tall stunning most of his friends with his late growth spurt. But then Trowa grew taller than that, always doomed to look his part as seme. He had grown to be one hundred ninety centimeters tall. Everyone had grown to a good height and gone through belated puberty. It was unanimously decided that the cause of their delayed aging had been due to stress. Alongside the maturing of the body came the maturing of the mind, which the pilots had accepted more willingly.  
  
Quatre had taken on the burden of business at his father's company. Then Trowa moved in with him after dealing with desolation in the circus and the need for emotional contact. Their relationship had always been very co- dependent and had developed to be even more so as they discovered hidden feelings they harbored for each other. And it became clear why Trowa had chosen to go where he had eventually gone. It was inevitable from the first moment the pilots had laid eyes on each other. Trowa now worked at an animal shelter on L4 to be close to the person he most treasured. Things for him and Quatre were going perfectly.  
  
As far as things for Heero and Duo were concerned, everything had started when Duo visited him in the hospital. Heero had caught a minor illness, but he'd not treated it for so long that he ended up fainting at work and ended up needing to spend some days in a controlled environment recovering. After a short Preventer mission, Duo received a message that Heero had fallen ill. Taking the message as a hint, Duo packed his bags and left for L1 to visit his old war buddy. Heero was laid out on a sterile looking white bed with standard issue sheets, basically, standard issue everything that seemed to suit him just fine. Duo didn't know what to do, seeing him looking so vulnerable. He stumbled into the small hospital room and took a seat next to the less than enthusiastic patient. Then he whipped out an old book that he'd found which somehow reminded him of Heero. It was titled Raptor Red, written by Robert T. Bakker. The pages were yellowed and loose. Duo had been very lucky that none were missing. Even though the main character of the novel was female, the computer like thought patterns she displayed seemed uncannily similar to Heero's. They'd gotten to the part where the male raptor left when Heero asked out of the blue, "Duo, would you hold me or something? I'm cold and…" It might have been the drugs in his blood allowing him to be more open or a real show of his emotions.  
  
He didn't need to continue as Duo completely forgot about the book letting it spill out onto the tile of the hospital floor and held Heero as best as he could without disturbing the various instruments in the room. After Heero was released from the hospital with no real life past being a Preventer so Duo asked him to join him on L2 which he meekly accepted. A bond and a hope blossomed that day.  
  
The perfect soldier had soon become a computer specialist if there was any doubt of that. And Duo, after working as an aide at the L2 orphanage, would have to pry his beloved away from his laptop when he got home. Thoughts of exorcising or hexing the damned scrap of metal had crossed his mind on many an occasion.  
  
In a daze born of boredom, Duo barely registered Quatre approach and sit beside him until he felt the Arabian's leg brush up against his own. They now shared the same window ledge facing each other waiting for something they both feared. In truth, they didn't fear Wufei, not at all. It was just the fear of seeing someone after such a long absence. The anticipation seemed to only weave itself around Quatre and Duo who glanced at their lovers who in turn seemed immune to such emotions. Mock annoyance graced Duo's face while Quatre sighed with acceptance and resignation.  
  
Duo looked intently into the cerulean depths of his friend's eyes sifting through the myriad of colors and emotions he found there until he all but gave up and asked outright, "Scared? Worried? Need some tea?"  
  
"Not in particularly…." Quatre smiled calmly shifting his weight around prodding Duo's leg with his. The chestnut haired boy frowned determinedly at the contact and lightly kicked his friend who willingly obliged him in kicking him back softly. They became so absorbed in their game of footsy that they didn't notice the sleek black car pull into the driveway.  
  
Heero and Trowa looked at each other for only an instant talking through their eyes and then made ready to leave the room, they'd been camping out in the study for the past few days. They meticulously cleaned off the mahjong board and tidied up the spaces they'd been occupying. Trowa stole a look at Quatre who was playing Duo's game halfheartedly with a contented smile plastered upon his face. A small smile played on Trowa's own lips as he memorized that moment.  
  
Since they'd met up at the Alliance mansion, he and Heero had been trying to hack the Alliance files, but the computer defense system found within was surprisingly impregnable. Both men decided to shut the mission out of their minds for a while, concentrating on the time they had left before obligation to their government was to be fulfilled. A good soldier awaits orders.  
  
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Wufei stepped out of the car running his fingers through his hair and holding his duffel bag loosely by his side. He shut the door and turned curtly to the pearl colored structure looming seven stories above his head. Everything was well designed and elaborately carved into the building. The Alliance seemed to want to out do the Forbidden City in architecture. The flowery structure before him paled in comparison to the elegance of the imperial city.  
  
He walked up the shallow steps between two rectangular columns to the large set of doors. It was such a dramatic image that Wufei had half a mind to graffiti it with something, anything. Instead, he pressed the comm button and stood patiently waiting for a response.  
  
A fuzzy voice broke the silence, "Please insert ID."  
  
Unimpressed, Wufei fished his wallet out of his duffel bag and slid it into the slit in the comm box. …What a waste of space…he thought contemplating the large structure before him. It was big, it was impressive, it was trash. The wiring in the building must've been hard to network in such a hulking structure. It would've been more prudent to build a less extravagant conference house, and settle for a practical space where around twenty-five people could meet, get work done, and further the development of the colonies. All the money gone into building one column could have gone to help hundreds of war refugees. It sickened Wufei to think of how unfair it was. Post-war life had really changed him. His only solace was found in the fact that he was directly helping the people with the Preventers, no wasting time in lofty battles of ethics and budget expenditures, just pure action.  
  
"ID confirmed, please proceed," the fuzzy voice came again. The crackle of old technology burned in the slit of the door. And Wufei expelled a long breath with annoyance waiting for his ID card to be released.  
  
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"Pilot 05 has arrived," the unisexual cracked voice of the comm flooded the room.  
  
"Ah!" Quatre exclaimed easing off the sill but not before Duo who was out the door like a bullet. Heero left the room at a slower pace. Trowa waited for Quatre and held out his hand, which his lover took gratefully. They both exited the room casually in each other's safety all of a sudden in no rush to get anywhere.  
  
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Wufei stood in the gaping hall waiting for someone, something to tell him what was expected of him now. He silently cursed the absentmindedness of the government and wondered whether he ought to go crash in a random room just to make something happen. Then he heard a voice that made him involuntarily cringe.  
  
"Wu-man!!!" Duo cried running down a flight of stairs. He hadn't taken the time to look up, otherwise, he'd have been very confused.  
  
The Chinese man watched the braided one coming his way raising a brow at the foolish pace he was running down the ridiculous amount of stairs.  
  
When he'd reached the bottom, Duo lifted his head to catch his breath. It hitched in his throat when he saw the Chinese man looking his way. He looked nothing like the deadpan serious youth he'd known a few years back. He stood there staring for a minute to assess what he was looking at, then, he lunged at the now startled ex-pilot catching him in a very firm embrace, talking into Wufei's shirt very excitedly looking up once or twice to catch his breath. Nothing he said could be made out as it was muffled by Wufei's coat. When he'd had enough, about fifty-five seconds after being glomped, Wufei growled loudly, "Maxwell!"  
  
This only served to encourage the braided youth who flailed one arm about to emphasize words lost in the fabric Wufei's clothes.  
  
For lack of a better solution, Wufei prepared to pry Duo off of himself when a familiar voice echoed from the stairway, "Duo. Off. Now." Heero stood halfway in descent with his cobalt eyes boring into his lover's back. He was taller and now wore jeans and a t-shirt, much different than the soldier Wufei had known. Both Wufei and Heero regarded each other for a minute calculatingly before the room swung back into motion.  
  
Duo unlatched himself from Wufei and began making exclamations about his appearance smacking his shoulders once or twice. He was talkative as ever and eyeing the Chinese ex-pilot critically asking about plastic surgery and other miscellany things that Wufei grunted a negative to.  
  
"Wufei, it's nice to see you again," a sincere, soft-voice hailed him. He looked up into Quatre's azure eyes and then into Trowa's forest green ones. It was oddly thrilling to see them both still together but at the same time made Wufei feel sore to be the only one alone. His gaze dropped a little while Quatre and Trowa walked down the stairs.  
  
"Winner. Barton," Wufei said respectfully above Duo's idle chatter.  
  
He barely noticed Heero until he heard a surprised yelp issue from Duo. The ex-soldier had his lover's braid in his fist and was dragging him a good distance away. "Heero!" Duo whimpered until he got a glare from him.  
  
"Poor Duo…" Quatre frowned watching the whole scene from the foot of the stairs. Then he felt long fingers weave through his hair and looked up at Trowa who radiated with understanding in his eyes. They exchanged brief smiles before turning to their long absent and missed Wufei.  
  
"How have you been?" Quatre smiled warmly. His hair was longer and cut to frame his small angular face. Flaxen curls clinging to his neck. He looked like he'd stepped out of a painting. Wufei returned the smile watching as surprise flitted across the Arab's face but was soon gone.  
  
"I've survived," Wufei replied dryly.  
  
"I'm glad," Quatre grinned. "What have you been up to?"  
  
Duo sat back and could no longer hold his curiosity when that one question was posed. He began to move uncomfortably against his boyfriend until he was released. "Yeah! Where have you been? Everyone has been looking for you at Preventer meetings but we never see you…actually…now that I've gotten a good look at you. We probably bumped into you once or twice…or actually, maybe a dozen times…Why didn't you ever come talk to us? We've missed you a lot! Are you married? Do you have a girlfriend? What's going on?"  
  
Heero could have backhanded Duo for his tactlessness but stayed silent waiting for Wufei's response.  
  
"…I am not involved with anyone for the time being. I have not been, ever. And I don't plan on it. For the past five years, I've been working as a preventer and living by myself. It's been better that way," Wufei frowned a little after finishing realizing that he'd lied somewhere in there, though he didn't care to think about it.  
  
"Oh!" Duo said frowning but then he grinned. "..Hey…Do you have that katana with you? Can I see what you brought?" He began tugging at the black handle of the duffel bag in Wufei's hand.  
  
"Duo, do you want to go get something to eat?" Quatre asked wanting to ease the stress on Wufei and was rewarded when he had his friend's full attention. "I'll make you something, and Trowa, would you show Wufei to his room?" The blonde looked imploringly at his lover who bowed his head in affirmation.  
  
While Quatre pulled Duo in the direction of the dining halls, Trowa walked with Wufei in the opposite direction. Heero had disappeared into the shadows unnoticed by the others. He liked it that way.  
  
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Trowa still talked very little even though he'd had plenty of time to develop his social skills with Quatre. Then it dawned upon Wufei that the couple probably read each other's minds. They had that kind of a bond. The type of bond that Wufei envied and feared at the same time.  
  
They walked for a while to the far wing where the ex-pilots were staying.  
  
"You seem to know your way around here…" Wufei commented after a while of going up and down dizzying flights of stairs and down dimly lit halls.  
  
"I've had two days to look around," Trowa said in his soft voice pressing his ID card into a comm box.  
  
"I thought you got here four days ago."  
  
"I did."  
  
"Then why only…" Wufei trailed off realizing where he'd end up. "Why are we so far in the building?"  
  
"That's what we've been trying to figure out."  
  
The green light flashed on the comm. of the door they were currently standing in front of followed by the click of locks unbolting. Trowa pushed the door open with a heavy clang of metal. Therein was a hallway with a plain green carpet, nothing like the elaborate rugs and draping in the rest of the house. Rooms were on either side of the walkway until the hall came to an abrupt end after five doors length.  
  
"We're the only people occupying this wing," the green eyed man said quietly. "That door on the left leads to Quatre's room. The room next to that is mine. And across the hall from Quatre's room is Duo. And next to him…you already know by now. Any other rooms in this hall are free."  
  
"Thanks," Wufei said walking down the hall. He chose the room on the end far from the other pilot's rooms. This was where he belonged. Walking purposefully, he opened the door to his temporary lodgings and closed the door after himself.  
  
Trowa stood in the hallway for only a moment before taking his leave. 


	2. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
In the safety of his simple room complete with: a bed, a dresser, a hamper, and a desk; Wufei meditated over the events of the day. When you looked at it as an outsider, it seemed very confusing, but when it all came down to it. The scene in the main hall had been what it would've been like five years ago. Everyone was still playing their old roles. Quatre was the peacemaker, Duo was the noisemaker, Trowa was the withdrawn calculating one, and Heero was the one to enforce order. Wufei wondered where he fit in.  
  
"Why has nothing changed?" he asked aloud. Five years had passed, and things were supposed to be different. Things were supposed to change and develop. But then there were things that never change, and that's when one is supposed to ask oneself whether he'd ever want it to change. If there was a system that worked, then it only made sense that it'd stay around for a very long time.  
  
Wufei didn't bother to open his duffel bag, thinking about how stupid it would be when he'd more than likely be leaving the next day. A thought crossed his mind to check for bugging devices then he decided against it contradicting his instincts to just tear the room apart. He did not trust the Alliance and as the years dragged on, he began to put less and less faith in Relena Peacecraft. The system was not working.  
  
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"It's as if he hasn't come back to us," Duo pouted picking at his dinner.  
  
"You've forgotten that he never was 'with us,'" Trowa reminded him.  
  
"Ah…that's right…" Duo exclaimed scratching his head with the revelation. "I guess you can't win them all." He'd never thought of it before, but now it made sense. The way that Wufei had always been reluctant to join them in anything finally clicked.  
  
"He was…and still is with us," Quatre said drawing attention. "The war was not won with four pilots. And you've forgotten…that this is the way things were back then. The four of us would converge on one spot while Wufei would find someplace less suffocating, while he was perfectly willing to carry on a conversation or sit in silence with one of us. He's with us but not with us." Having brought his point to light, Quatre took a long sip of tea as if he hadn't said anything at all.  
  
Heero sat at the far end of the table suppressing a smile. The clicks of computer keys were a background noise to what he was hearing and thinking.  
  
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Wufei had spent a full day in his room alternating between meditating, exercising, and listening to his headphones. He felt safe alone. The choked sound of the comm. in his room interrupted his concentration during one of his meditation sessions. He stared at the object until a white strip of paper began flowing out. When it had finished, the cube just hung dormant with the paper protruding out like a tongue. Resigned, Wufei stalked over to the comm. and tugged the paper out careful not to rip any of the text.  
  
He read it sniffing lightly. Pilot 05. Report to wing 54, room 446. Bring your belongings with you.  
  
After gathering his things, he took a quick study of the map posted next to his door and then headed out.  
  
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He found the room with little trouble. Next to the door was a small carved tag: Militant Affairs Conference Room 14. It was established now that perhaps, the Alliance wasn't as inclined to their pacifist policies after all. Switching his mind over to objective mode, he inserted his ID card into the comm. cube having learned to keep it in his hand and ready. The light flashed green and the door shot open.  
  
All the other pilots had already gathered at the far end of the table flanked by various representatives from the colonies. And then at the head of the table was Relena Peacecraft. Wufei's lip curled a little upon seeing her but then his face smoothed out again into the businessman mask he was accustomed to wearing now a days.  
  
He took the only empty seat between Quatre and Heero in respectful silence. The meeting began with introductions all around, a small briefing on the importance of the conference, and other little details, all the wonderful frills of the Alliance.  
  
"There is a small colony in this section of our galaxy," Relena said standing up and poking the touch screen enlarging the image for everyone to see. "How they have survived, if they have, without help from the Alliance will be soon found out. And also, how they've managed to stay secret for so long. The gundam pilots are to establish contact with the colony and then to request and assist disarmament should the colony have any weaponry. Whether the colony chooses to accept or not, they are a part of the Alliance and as such must lay down their arms if they have any. If they refuse to comply, then the pilots' task shall be to take control by force. This mission should be simple for you."  
  
"Why should we bother them? What if they're heavily armed? We won't be able to take them on in a carrier," Heero asked making Relena falter.  
  
"Well…umm…that is…They are part of our space and therefore, fall under our rule. And we have reconstructed the gundams for your task with a new team of professors that will brief you on your individual weapons…The blueprints for the gundams were never destroyed and we've put them to use."  
  
The rest of the meeting passed quickly as if everyone just wanted to chuck the gundam pilots into space as quickly as possible. At the conclusion of the meeting, the five pilots were escorted to a car in the front of the Alliance mansion where they'd be driven to a different portion of the grounds.  
  
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"Something's up," Duo frowned. "They didn't tell us everything back there." He sat bent over picking at his braid.  
  
"Nothing is ever as easy as they make it sound," Quatre agreed weaving his fingers in Trowa's. "That's why they make you accept a mission before you actually learn about it."  
  
"And Relena, she's gone nuts! I thought we were peace promoters. We're not supposed to charge in guns a blazing and expect these people to comply."  
  
"You're right…I wonder if she's doing alright…" Quatre sighed.  
  
"Ugh…you're actually worried about her?" Duo said in surprise and distaste. "I'd say that she's just getting bored. Five years without war is bound to do something to her ego."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"When you've got nothing to preach, you lose power."  
  
Heero typed on his laptop as if he was oblivious to their conversation. He was pulling up some interesting files.  
  
Wufei listened to the conversation at the same time absorbed in his own thoughts. He wondered why the Alliance would want to tamper with a colony that hadn't been involved in any militant maneuvers for at least two decades. It didn't make sense.  
  
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About thirty minutes away from the Alliance mansion, there was a warehouse- like structure that must have spanned over a five-mile radius. Bored from the ride, the pilots piled out of the car hurriedly with their luggage in hand into a large, well-lit garage. Everything was bright white and impeccably clean. The valet, instead of driving away, got out of the car and led the pilots down many corridors into a very large room. It contained very few pieces of equipment and there were a few doors at the far end with post-it notes stuck all over them. In the middle of the room, eight men dressed in white were bent over something with their backs to the door everyone had entered from.  
  
The valet coughed loudly making a few of them turn. They looked to be in their early twenties. Some of their hair was blotched odd colors and sticking up in every possible direction. All of them looked Asian, the uniform for all of them. A long silence ensued as the pilots and the scientists sized each other up.  
  
All too soon, the silence was broken. "These are the pilots. Great!" the shortest man, probably just below five feet tall, grinned flashing his pearly white fangs at everyone. His canines were incredibly sharp in appearance and drew attention. "Let's see," he continued looking over each youth with appraising eyes. "I'm supposed to tutor…you!" He locked eyes with Duo. "Hajimashite Shinigami-san. Sorry we have to be fast with all of this, no lengthy intros. Follow me this way." The short scientist motioned for him to follow. Duo barely registered himself moving to catch up with the scientist. He was fascinated with the other man's energy.  
  
A small cough brought everyone back to earth recovering from the unexpected cheeriness the impish one in white had displayed. "That was Canine. He lives up to his name. I'm Fair," another man said. He had frost blue blots in his short hair that curled at the ends. The questioning looks he got made him sigh and amend his faulty wording. "My name is Fair. F-A-I-R. I'm supposed to explain a gundam to one of you…Trowa." The scientist's gray eyes fell upon the tallest pilot. "Follow me," he said shoving his hands in his pockets and stalking off. Trowa followed obediently.  
  
"Heero," the next scientist said in a commanding tone. "This way." The two men disappeared down a latter, neither bothering with the rungs.  
  
Wufei caught a glimpse of what the remaining scientists were leaning over. It was an owlish looking cat complete with wings. It was in a plastic tank that muted it's mewling. He was surprised to say the least.  
  
A very feminine looking man turned his head, then he nudged the man closest to him and both turned around. Wufei knew immediately who was going to call for him and waited for Quatre to walk off with the wiry one. He had headphones on, and still managed to carry on a conversation with "pilot 04" as they walked away.  
  
"You're last," the feminine man said in a very smooth male voice. Wufei stepped forward and walked next to the scientist careful to keep his pace so he was side to side with him.  
  
-  
  
Duo marveled at the craftsmanship gone into building his gundam. It was sleek and black with green bands outlining its joints and curves. Canine gave him a computer pad with particulars and statistics regarding the suit. He talked very animatedly about the adjustments he'd made while still keeping true to the original handling and design. "It's for more efficient and faster adjusting. It's all about familiarity. We were careful to tailor design to your individual capabilities." Canine flashed Duo a toothy grin and kicked the gundam's gigantic foot. Around the spot his shoe had struck, a box became illuminated in green light. "That is where you retrieve your remote self-destruct control, there's also one you can access through your main computer. It's mentioned in your booklet. We were told not to install these, but we couldn't resist. You see…the Alliance is all about money. We all figured we'd do this to piss 'em off," Canine proudly explained while Duo explored wiping an escapee tear of troublemaker's bliss as he did so. "So…what do you think?" he asked excitedly.  
  
"Can I keep it?" Duo grinned.  
  
Canine grinned back. "It's been so long since we've had visitors here!" he said after a pause. "I've missed it."  
  
-  
  
"This is wing zero with a few adjustments," the man indicated to a few key spots on the gundam to explaining the differences to Heero. He adjusted his glasses every now and then when he was explaining something crucial like handling differences. "This is the hardest suit to pilot. You adapt quickly, so…everyone figured we could give you some killer extras that we couldn't install on the other gundams. All the parts on wing are interchangeable with other gundams. If you feel that something would suit someone else better, just take it off and pass it on. Then we come to the point of self-destruct. Against direct orders from Relena Peacecraft, we have installed a self-destruct program. Knowing your kamikaze methods, we've also installed a program that hails all the salvageable parts back to you when you're revived. Then they put themselves back together. It's a smart program that can also be copied to other gundams. But when you copy it, you need to write it for that specific gundam you're giving it to." The scientist clutched his clipboard to his chest and knocked on the gundam's palm. A box illuminated with a red light appeared, "This is where you retrieve your detonation control."  
  
Heero looked appraisingly at his gundam, which was chrome colored being the last to be finished and nodded.  
  
The scientist ran his fingers through the pale streaks in his unruly hair and sighed, "By the way, my name is Ryoukai."  
  
-  
  
"So…My gundam has a lot of strategic programs," Quatre nodded reading off the computer pad. "And more equipment designed for defense."  
  
"You're the brains…so, yeah," the scientist said quietly adjusting the headset under his mop of feathery orange hair.  
  
"I guess so…and then there's the self-destruct we already went over, maintenance, etcetera…so, that covers it, right, Sunshine?"  
  
Sunshine grunted and affirmative making notes on his computer pad.  
  
"Thank you," Quatre said smiling making Sunshine look up self-consciously. His bright green eyes studied the smile critically for a minute. Then he smiled back slowly.  
  
"You have the smile of a child. It becomes you."  
  
-  
  
"You have a past similar to someone I once knew," Fair said as Trowa inspected his new gundam.  
  
"Really?" Trowa replied nonchalantly.  
  
"Yes, but instead of having reams of men beating him, it was one man, his father," Fair replied as if he were talking about the weather. "He never defended himself even though he could have killed the old man in seconds. I used to see him with the worst injuries. He'd just stand there like a rag doll and take it."  
  
Trowa turned his emerald eyes to the scientist who was doing some last minute programming on the deck below him. The wire mesh was easy to see through, and it was just as easy to see the truth in Fair's face. "Why?" he asked quietly.  
  
"Because he didn't believe in taking the risk," Fair replied simply tugging at a lock of blue hair while he thought. "…damn…" he muttered when the code came up red. "N.G."  
  
-  
  
"The way I designed Nataku is for hand to hand combat. The body is thinner and more flexible. There are serrated edges on the fingers of each hand," the feminine man explained lighting a cigarette and pointed to a few parts of the gundam. "You do have weapons for long range attack, though. Smart caps and the like."  
  
"You've studied my file, right?" Wufei asked reading over the Nataku bio.  
  
"No. I studied the war."  
  
"How old are you?"  
  
"Thirty-two," the man replied.  
  
"What's your name?"  
  
"My name is Ash. For obvious reasons."  
  
"What's your real name?"  
  
"Not telling. That'd spoil the fun," Ash replied seriously. "It doesn't matter anyway. You'd never be able to do anything with it. We're all ghosts." He dropped his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it exhaling a puff of translucent gray as he did so.  
  
-  
  
Everyone ate while being briefed on communication and simulator methods. It would take a week to reach the colony space. The week would be spent going through virtual simulators to get used to the controls and overall feel of the machinery. And sustenance would be fed from a tube into their bloodstream. No one was particularly keen on the idea but no one raised any objections either.  
  
After all the scientists were through talking, Duo asked, "So, what happens now? Do we crash here for the night?"  
  
Canine frowned, "Nope…unfortunately…tonight we pack you up and ship you off. Then tomorrow, we go home."  
  
"Ah….But I didn't even savor my bed last night!" Duo cried.  
  
Quatre bit his lip to keep himself from laughing as Duo ranted on, even throwing in the word justice in once of twice for good measure.  
  
"Wuffie, help me out here! You know more about justice than I do!" the braided pilot whimpered.  
  
Wufei shot him a death glare before going back to scrutinizing his gundam particulars.  
  
"Heero?" Duo pleaded getting no response from his computer-absorbed lover. "Quatre?" The Arab shrugged helplessly as Duo crumpled hopelessly on the dinner table. A muffled and long drawn out "no" came from his still form followed by a few pathetic sniffles.  
  
-  
  
For how much he whined, Duo was quite animated by the time everyone was getting prepped to leave. He baited Wufei who was still reading and frowned when he got no response. Then he struck up conversation with Quatre before being dragged away by Canine. Heero watched them talk for a while before shrugging his shoulders and deciding that the scientist was no threat to him.  
  
"I'm worried…" Quatre frowned cradling Trowa's hand in his. "I've got this feeling that something important is going to happen. I don't know if it's bad or not….I just…" He trailed off fumbling for words to describe his angst but found none.  
  
"Don't worry, Quatre," Trowa said raising the Arab's hand to his lips. He kissed Quatre's knuckles comfortingly then leaned his pale lover onto his shoulder using the steady pressure of his fingers on the other man's shoulder to anchor him there. "If something is to happen, it would be better to see what it is before worrying."  
  
Quatre leaned further into Trowa closing his eyes to breathe in his scent, memorizing it. A week without knowing this contact would be sheer torture.  
  
Wufei looked up from his study material to see the couple lean into each other. The emotional intimacy of the moment made him want to punch something, an outlet for his hormonal distress. Instead, he got up and made a dash for the safety of the cockpit of his gundam.  
  
An eternity later, everyone exchanged formal goodbyes and the gundams were launched into space.  
  
-  
  
Relena fought the bile that rose in her throat. She'd sent them on a war mission, her Heero and the others. Her Heero might die. Ands she'd made a complete mockery of herself during the meeting. A Peacecraft telling a group of people that they're going to go start a conflict as if she were talking about going on a picnic. For a few years, the Alliance had been the problem, and now she was joining them. She was going to be another slimy looking photo in the newspaper.  
  
-  
  
The simulation programs that the pilots went through seemed almost inhumane but sharpened long forgotten skills and tactics through the sheer intensity of each fake battle. The interesting part of the training was in the design of the battles. After the initial adjusting programs done alone, the other gundam pilots were incorporated as part of the same simulation. No one ever won battles by themselves, so, it was therefore not prudent to learn to fight alone.  
  
On the sixth day of traveling and training, everyone was jolted awake by a loud beeping. It had a pattern: high, low, high, high, low. Then there'd be a pause followed by the same string of beeps.  
  
"I think we're being hailed," Quatre's voice came crisply over the intercom.  
  
"What do we do about it?" Duo replied tiredly wiping the sleep from his eyes. "'Hi, we're here to tell you that you're part of out government. Surrender your weapons. Resistance is futile'?"  
  
"I don't think they'd take kindly to that, Maxwell," Wufei said annoyed.  
  
"Do you want to lie?" Duo smirked.  
  
"Shove it," Wufei growled.  
  
"I think we're supposed to have a password," Trowa said pointedly to Quatre.  
  
"We don't have a password…"  
  
"We're going to fight," Heero stated leaving no room for questions.  
  
His words proved true when the steady chorus of beeps flattened out to a long sour note. And out of the darkness of space, a mobile suit materialized. It looked similar to Nataku but of a lighter build and a more angular anatomy. Its coloring was dark red, like wine. The fact that it was alone was cause for confusion. The pilots quickly scanned for other suits and found none. Was this suit an escort?  
  
That was soon decided when the red suit drew a long staff and eased itself into a defensive position. Heero, not being one to pass up such an obvious challenge, was the first to fly forward drawing his light sword as he did so. The red suit struck first, faster than any of the pilots could register before Heero struck back. The duel was very impressive, but there was an unsaid feeling that all the pilots got. The red suit was holding back. It had not used any guns, or light blades, etcetera and it seemed to be defending against pilot 01's assault way too easily.  
  
Wufei flew forward to alleviate his curiosity. He wanted to bring out the power in the red suit. After he began attacking, it didn't really surprise him at all when the red suit simply changed tactics. No matter how many times he struck out, the red suit would evade the attack and defend against Heero. The pilots in the red and the green suits were holding back.  
  
"This is my fight Wufei," Heero said as he narrowly avoided a blow.  
  
"I'm not here to help you," Wufei snapped.  
  
Both pilots were silent after that. Wing Zero got dealt a crippling hit by the red suit, but instead of being finished off, Heero was just ignored and no longer part of the problem. Duo panicked and flew forward to join the fight not completely sure about the safety of pilot 01. Quatre followed after trying to get Duo to come back to no avail, and Trowa flew in to protect pilot 04.  
  
It was awkward to be ganging up on one mobile suit, but there was little else to do. And the red suit proved to be more than capable of taking care of itself. A few scratches marred its glossy red exterior, the only proof that it had been fighting. The gundam pilots may as well have been flies, easily swatted out of the way.  
  
By an amazing stroke of luck, the enemy sustained good damage to its arm. Quatre fired at the red suit sending it back into Wufei who dealt it a serious blow to the right arm with a swift kick. The suit faltered a little before retaliating going head to head with Nataku. It fended off the other suits while going on the offensive to deal with 05. It was horrifying how quickly the battle was finished after that. The gundams were collected and lead away from the battle scene by the victorious red mobile suit.  
  
-  
  
The pilots sat through a grueling six hours wondering where they were going and why they hadn't been finished off yet. And they also wondered who in the galaxy was piloting the red mobile suit, definitely a very formidable fighter that had gone out of his way to preserve the gundams. The only gundam with any serious damage was Nataku that had suffered the red suit's offensive assault. And still, both pilots had been holding back.  
  
No one talked for the longest time until a beeping pattern shook them back into the real world. There was a pause and then an answering pattern of beeps.  
  
Quatre pulled up windows on his vid screen and caught a glimpse of something. It was almost liquid like and reflected the image of space. You could barely tell that it was a structure, save for the dimension of it. "Can you see it?" he asked over the comm. to the other pilots.  
  
"What is it?" Duo asked in return a little surprised at having his friend's face pop up on his screen. "I don't see anything."  
  
Tiredly, Quatre put his face in his hands, "Now we know how they stayed secret for so long."  
  
"They reflect space like a giant mirror," Trowa explained finally getting some images on his screen.  
  
Duo pulled up some more images and began to make out the glassy lines of a very large craft. "Oh…I see. So, Is the colony like some sort of a humungous battle ship or something?"  
  
"We'll have to find that out later," Quatre frowned. "I'd really like to know how that pilot beat us if there is a pilot in that suit at all."  
  
"I feel bad for Heero," Duo said pulling up a screen of Wing Zero. "I think his power was cut off. He would have self-destructed by now if he could."  
  
"Is that something to be sorry about?" Quatre grinned a little.  
  
"Not at all, but I bet he's feeling sorry," Duo grinned wearily. "I think we're all a little rusty on our fighting. These gundams are awesome, but we're not."  
  
"Yeah," Trowa agreed eyeing his console. "But we don't have to worry about that for the moment, do we?"  
  
"Nope, we're all dogs on a leash for now," Duo replied cheerily. 


	3. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
There was a point upon approaching the colony that all the power in each gundam suddenly gave out. The only programs left online were for life support. The pilots did not see the brilliant light flood into space from inside the colony or the people that flooded the docking space inspecting their gundams. It took a few hours to finish, and then all at once, the pilots were ejected from their gundams. White fabric nets broke their falls.  
  
It all happened too fast for them to register. One moment, they were in darkness and then the next, they were enveloped in bright white light. Hands gripped their arms and legs, restricting their movement. They were all besieged, cuffed, and being led out of the docking bay before they could understand what was going on.  
  
Everything was gray and sterile looking much like a laboratory. The halls the pilots were lead through were very compact and cool. No one said a word, nor did they really feel the need to. Their captors were all clad in t-shirts and faded jeans but despite their attire, they carried themselves like soldiers. It was a little confusing. Their hair ranged interestingly as well from normal styles to colored spikes. They looked like a bunch of delinquents even though their body language said otherwise. They passed by very few people, men and women all similarly attired and very strong looking.  
  
The pilots were beyond worrying about anything, everything seemed so surreal. After a while of walking, they came to a large green door with a keypad. One of the escorts ambled up to it, and his fingers danced across the keys like a spider. The door opened without a sound and the train of captors and captured continued onward. The ground was carpeted now, thick and green. There were many closed doors that they passed by.  
  
They stopped at one, waited until the door opened and then proceeded inside. There were seven chairs lined up in front of a large metallic desk. A young man sat behind it watching them enter. He wore a faded blue t-shirt and black rimmed glasses that brought out his bright blue eyes. His hair was the color of the sun and his bangs curled a little as if he'd been tugging at them. He looked hawkish. "Sit," was the only thing he said before the five pilots were forced into the chairs presumably made of the same material as the desk. Their cuffed arms were brought out behind the backs of the chairs preventing them from leaning forward. The room was very plain and furnished with a dozen objects that the pilots could not put a name to.  
  
The man behind the desk leaned forward, "I guess I'll start off with introductions. Don't bother to tell me who you are, I already know. My name is Erriji and I promise that no harm will come to any of you as long as you follow some simple instructions I'll explain to you in a little while. Now I will ask you a few questions and please answer them as honestly and to the best of your ability." The man didn't wait for a response before continuing tugging absentmindedly at an errant lock of hair. "Who made your mobile suits?"  
  
Quatre frowned, "What will you do with the names?"  
  
Erriji looked up surprised as if the question was incredibly stupid, "Keep them for reference, of course. Now, please answer."  
  
Sighing slightly, Quatre complied, "Sunshine."  
  
"Ryoukai."  
  
"Ash."  
  
"Canine."  
  
"Fair."  
  
"Any others?" Erriji asked seriously, the names not affecting him the slightest bit.  
  
"Three, but we never got their names," Quatre said quietly.  
  
"Great…next question, how did you find out about us?"  
  
"The Alliance sent us over here to see what you guys are up to," Duo piped up.  
  
"What do you think we're up to?"  
  
"Thought you might want to tell me that," Duo grinned humorlessly.  
  
"You'll have plenty of time to investigate. Next question, how challenging did you find the fight?"  
  
"Hey! Don't rub it in, it's not very sportsman like of you," Duo chided squirming in his chair.  
  
"It's nothing of the sort, honest. I just want to know."  
  
"Your pilot is very skilled…" Quatre almost whispered shuddering at the thought of facing the red mobile suit again. "How did you train him to be so good?"  
  
"Came that way, and you?" Erriji gestured towards Heero.  
  
"I want to fight him again."  
  
Erriji nodded thinking about it for a minute before turning to Wufei.  
  
"He was holding back," the Chinese man growled.  
  
"You should put a leash on him," Duo smirked.  
  
"He's very smart," Trowa finished.  
  
"…Funny how you all assume that the pilot you fought was a male. What would you say if I were to tell you that you'd been beaten by a woman?"  
  
Five surprised sets of eyes locked on the man behind the desk who chuckled lightly, "Don't worry. You fought a guy. Your manhood is safe."  
  
Wufei's eyes narrowed finding no humor in the joke.  
  
"And that was it, now we get to go do the dirty work of the government to see about getting you guys back home. I hope you guys won't mind it here because you'll be here for a while. Think of it as a vacation, except, you'll be dragged around by people most of your stay," Erriji chirped. "Elzia, can you find these guys rooms?"  
  
A very slender man that had been among the few to escort the pilots to the office answered in a very female voice, "Sure, Riji." With that, she dug into one of her sizeable pockets and extracted a pocket pc. Typing with nimble fingers, she made a small noise of disappointment. "Sorry, guy. There's only three rooms open. Titien's father got released this morning, Bijoe has been in need of a roommate for quite some time now, and Adra just got started with his simulators. It'd be a real crime to saddle Adra with a roommate just yet, so…that leaves Titien and Bijoe. Then it'd be really unfair to saddle one of them with three of these guys, so that leaves me with the only guy I can think of that didn't show up on the list…"  
  
"I know who you're talking about," Erriji frowned. "But he's got something to take care of right now, chickita."  
  
"I'd hardly call that corpse anything worth looking after," Elzia puffed irately.  
  
They continued talking as if they were the only people in the room for a while. Then they seemed to reach some sort of a resolution after they looked about ready to smack each other.  
  
The resolution being Erriji adjusting an earpiece and dialing on a keypad integrated into his desk. "Jivehn!" He said after a long silence and began to talk in a foreign tongue that none of the pilots even attempted to distinguish.  
  
"Alright, you guys need to pair up. One of you is going to be alone," Elzia said facing the pilots. "Tell me who you'll room with."  
  
"May I share a room with Trowa?" Quatre asked stealing a quick look at him.  
  
"Next pair," Elzia ordered.  
  
"I'll bunk with Heero," Duo offered.  
  
"So, that leaves Chang," the woman said writing on her notepad. She looked at him sympathetically. "Oh, I almost forgot. Words of advice: Don't ever try anything ie. Tampering with files, planting explosives, trying to run off in your gundams. Everyone in this colony is a soldier, and more than likely, your roommate will flatten you if they suspect anything. It's just safe to be good boys."  
  
"He's on his way," Erriji said falling back into his chair. "Damned Jivehn wanted to keep him the rest of the day."  
  
"He's coming, so….I'll be leaving," Elzia said and nodded to the others in the room to follow her out.  
  
Erriji and the pilots waited in silence for what seemed like forever. Then, in a swift and surprising movement, the man behind the desk slammed his palm down upon his desk. All the pilots jumped at the sudden motion, slumping a little when the door opened. Stepping tentatively into the office was a youth undoubtedly, albino. His hair was styled, one half combed down and the other half spiked up. His gaze was to the floor preventing everyone from seeing his whole face, and he had on the baggiest clothes of anyone they'd yet seen, but that did nothing to hide his lean figure.  
  
"Erriji," the youth said softly bowing at the waist. When he'd raised himself back up, he took a quick minute to adjust the yellow lens glasses he wore before bowing his head again when his superior acknowledged him. "You wanted to see me."  
  
"Yes. You're going to be taking one of these home," Erriji said waving his hand at the five pilots behind them.  
  
"Sir?" the youth mumbled turning just enough to get a glance at the pilots then turning back.  
  
"You'll be guardian of Chang Wufei until we figure out what to do with him."  
  
"I'll…collect him after my duties are finished. Sir."  
  
"Will do…How are your duties coming along, Artax?"  
  
"Five days, par our allotted time."  
  
"Good to know. Dismissed."  
  
"Thank you sir," the youth said bowing before he left casting a lingering look in Wufei's direction that was reciprocated in kind. Artax immediately focused his attention to his wrist and pressed a button on the band there, masking his shyness with indifference. Wufei was not fooled.  
  
-  
  
"Raise the temperature about one hundred twenty degrees," Artax ordered studying the read-outs.  
  
"That'll fry it," Heliclos stated already beginning to process the command.  
  
"I have a feeling, please."  
  
"Alright, reaching mark…ten-nine-eight-seven-six…abnormal readings detected, structural integrity holding…three-two…And we have life. Damn!" Heliclos exclaimed. "Amrita is alive again!"  
  
The pale youth sighed heavily setting his cup of tea down before taking a seat prepping for direct connection. His fingers rained upon the keyboard, stringing together numerous codes. He could feel his window of opportunity closing, and Amrita's responsiveness weakening. Just a few more codes and he'd have free access.  
  
Too slow, his time was up right before his program could be fully uploaded. Amrita was now with free will until he could think of a new way to hold her. Artax ran his fingers through his hair and ordered everyone home for the remainder of the day.  
  
His small team bade him their goodbyes and made off for home. Leaving him to stare at his puzzle for the rest of the afternoon wondering what to do. His hands rested on the keyboard he'd been hammering on furiously only a few moments before. Reluctantly, he shut down his workstation and left the room casting one last glance at his Amrita.  
  
In the hallway, he saw Heliclos looking anxiously at him. Guilt tore at Artax and he said as he strode by, "I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be," Heliclos said, his words falling upon deaf ears. Artax disappeared around the bend of the hallway and Heliclos continued back inside the small lab to retrieve his coat.  
  
-  
  
Wufei sat alone waiting for his "guardian" to collect him. After leaving Erriji's office later in the morning, he and the other pilots had been sent to a very large medical facility. There, they'd been poked and prodded, given complete physicals. The doctors had clucked a little disapprovingly while they went about their work as if the condition the pilots maintained was very poor. Wufei had half a mind to thwart the lot of them but controlled himself and let them do what they would.  
  
The artificial sun was now sitting upon the hills beyond the glass wall Wufei sat behind. The landscape of the colony was different from most. It seemed to mirror Earth. Most colonies had land tailored solely to their needs. It was practical to have a place specifically made for a certain type of work.  
  
What had possessed this colony to make a second Earth. This was what the Chinese pilot had been pondering since he'd gotten a good look at the outside. A high-tech colony such as this would all be sky-high buildings and gyms. But almost no synthetic structures marred the perfection of the land.  
  
"Mr. Chang," a familiar voice hailed him making his insides stir with an unfamiliar feeling. Slowly, he turned to face the person that had interrupted his thoughts. It was the boy from before. He looked very tired on top of his normal sadness. The image he created seemed to just cry out for someone to hold him and take away all his ills. Wufei nodded at him and after a long uneasy pause, Atrax said, "Lets go home…"  
  
He must have felt like a rat in a glass case under the steady gaze he was being subjected to, much similar to Wufei's feelings earlier when, he had been examined by many nameless people. It had been like going down an assembly line. One person had one sole purpose and when that was through, they'd send you down to the next person until you were finished.  
  
Artax stepped forward and took Wufei's hand in his, locking eyes with him. Feeling almost guilty, Wufei noticed that through the yellow lenses of the youth's glasses, the iris in his right eye was white. He barely registered himself being lead out of the building as he stared blankly at the back of Artax's head.  
  
Outside, he was lead to a long line of bikes. The surprise must've shown on his face when Artax lead him to a simple red bike because the pale youth tried to explain, "I was called on emergency this morning…" Which only served to confuse the Chinese boy more. Where were all the cars?  
  
It was an ideal time to run somewhere, anywhere and ditch the youth while he unfastened his bike from the stand, but he was rooted to the spot. Trying to make conversation, the boy spoke while he worked, "Our crime rate is very low here, but we still need to fasten our bikes somewhere. The wildlife likes to come around then tip over and damage anything people forget to take care of."  
  
"What about cars?" Wufei asked looking around from where he stood. There was nothing but bikes in the small lot. Plant life curled around some of the less used racks, everything was too dreamlike.  
  
"Cars are unnecessary and would be more of a problem than anything," Artax replied wheeling out his bike. "Dependence on then makes one weak…Please sit here," he said indicating with his index finger. Wufei sat on the only seat and flinched a little when Artax got on behind him. "Hold on tight," he instructed as he leaned gripping the handles. Artax stood with his feet on the ground, holding the bike up while Wufei got adjusted. Then in one fluid movement, he kicked the petals and they were moving. The terrain was a little rough but well ridden, and it surprised Wufei how easily the youth pedaled. Even without an extra person, it was a challenging ride.  
  
Wufei was so absorbed in thinking about the abilities of his guardian that he didn't even entertain a single thought about crashing the bike and making an escape.  
  
-  
  
It was dark when they reached the small clusters of apartments, the civilian area as Artax called it. Instead of stopping in there, he rode past into a different neighborhood. It was a small area of one-story houses on paved roads unlike the earthen roads they'd been traveling before. They rode into the drive of one of them and dismounted the bike much in the fashion they'd got on. Artax hadn't even broken a sweat from all that he put his body through. He lead his bike up the walk to the front door and hooked it up to the side of the house. Wufei strolled ahead to the door and waited for Artax who joined him momentarily.  
  
"I thought that everyone lived in those apartments when we passed them by," Wufei commented while the youth opened the door.  
  
"This is the residential area for seniors," Artax replied waving his charge inside. "I need the in home medical facilities these provide otherwise I'd live with everyone else in an apartment."  
  
"You don't seem like someone with medical problems."  
  
"I'm not," Artax replied as the lights in the main room flipped on and the door shut behind them. He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it on the bed that was located conveniently to the left of the door. Immediately, Wufei noticed the reddened bandages on the youth's right arm. He thought about asking about them but then thought better of it and straightened himself out feigning indifference.  
  
"It's late, do you want to learn about this colony tonight or tomorrow? What is expected of you from now until you leave," Artax asked using his left arm to tug the fold away bed under his out and raise it up. Then he sat on it, Wufei sat next to him.  
  
"I'd like to be told now, thanks."  
  
"Okay, what do you want to know?"  
  
"How do you keep a colony like this running? This must be very expensive to keep running."  
  
"We are self-sufficient."  
  
"What do you do here?"  
  
"What is expected of me."  
  
"What am I supposed to do tomorrow?"  
  
"Keep in my sights at all times. Come with me to work and stand around."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"We can't trust you."  
  
"What would happen if I were to 'try anything?'"  
  
"You'd be sorry, that's all I can say."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"…" Artax stood up and looked down at Wufei coldly for a minute. "Lets continue this in the morning."  
  
Wufei complied confusedly and lay back on the recently vacated spot that Artax had been resting on. He could feel secrets closing in around him like a plastic sheet.  
  
-  
  
Before the sun had risen, Wufei was awoken by light flooding his senses. He forced his eyes open slowly blinking hard. It took a moment to register where he was then the events from yesterday flooded his mind. He felt sick. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his guardian emerge from a room he hadn't taken the time to notice before. The uniformity and plainness of the colony was getting to him even though it wasn't too different from the environment he'd grown in. He raised himself up on his elbows trying to focus.  
  
"Good morning," Artax said quietly. His hair was all down and the part that had been spiked the day before was surprisingly long. It reached past his shoulders. He'd taken a shower that morning by the looks of it, and the gauze on his arm had been changed. It was bright white and almost blended into his skin. "If you want to wash up, the shower is there."  
  
Of course, a straight walk from the front door was a clear shower stall. It was probably built there strategically so a person could shed their clothes at the door and walk right into the inviting world of water or it was put there to give people that ever decided to drop in a good show.  
  
The thought of seeing Artax in the shower made Wufei want to leap under a cold waterfall. "Do I get any cover?" he asked hoping for a curtain or something.  
  
"There's a tint program," Artax said making his way to the kitchen. "It's easy to operate."  
  
-  
  
Wufei undressed inside the stall after figuring out how to tint the glass and dropped his clothes just outside the door within easy reach. Everything was surprisingly easy to understand, so manipulating the controls of the stream and temperature wasn't too challenging. Everything was spelled out, definitely a shower made for people with Alzheimer's. There was a keypad with "warm" and "cold" with minus and plus signs. The tint controls had been just as straight forward.  
  
Everything in the shower was standard like war rations: normal shampoo, conditioner, soap, and a washcloth. At least, the soap looked normal, it had the same plain label as everything else, but when Wufei applied it to his skin, it felt like he was washing himself with sand in a gel form. It felt so grainy and like it was rubbing his skin off. He rinsed it off quickly and finished up in the shower.  
  
-  
  
Overall, his shower took about five minutes. He reached outside the shower and grabbed what was outside there, a towel and a folded pile of clothing. The clothes were not his but they fit him, even though they were a little baggy. A dark green slightly bluish shirt and black pants that clung desperately to his hips, standard issue boxers and socks in their respective packages. He felt only a momentary twinge of annoyance at having his personal possessions tampered with, but was grateful for the clean clothes more than he was mad at not having his dirty ones.  
  
The smell of good food wafted its way to Wufei and he walked robotically to the kitchen. Being woken up early always aroused a hideous hunger in him and the smell emanating from the kitchen was too tempting to ignore. It was a little too amusing for Wufei's tired senses to take seeing Artax with all his stylish, baggy clothes under a crisp white apron standing in front of a stovetop. He looked like a failing rebel. The corners of Wufei's lips curled into a very tired, dopey grin admiring the sight purely for early morning amusement.  
  
"Do they fit?" Artax asked, adjusting the band on his wrist, not bothering to turn around. Instead turning to slice up some cucumbers and other vegetables.  
  
Wufei almost didn't notice the boy's soft voice but picked up on it and answered an affirmative.  
  
"I'm glad," Artax said tossing the contents inside the wok. Fried rice. Wufei's hunger pushed itself up into his throat, and he tried his best to rein it in.  
  
"How early did you wake up this morning?" Wufei asked leaning on the doorframe. He felt like crumpling on the floor to smother the ache in his stomach but he stood upright looking about apathetically as he could manage.  
  
"Four o'clock, it is now five-ten," Artax replied clicking off the burners and distributing the contents into separate bowls. He was fast and efficient like a soldier or a wife, or both. What exactly he was, Wufei would reserve for later judgment.  
  
Artax balanced various plates and bowls on his arms and made his way to the small table that huddled in the corner of the kitchen, barely noticeable. It was pushed to alignment with the wall so that there were three sides to which a person might sit. And in the center of the table was a rotating island for sharing food.  
  
At the table, Wufei tried to make conversation feeling a little uneasy not knowing anything about this person. "How did you injure your arm?"  
  
Artax ate carefully with his left hand and paused a minute, "I got into a fight.""You don't strike me as a violent person."  
  
"I don't think I am either."  
  
"Then how did you get into a fight?"  
  
"I had to go investigate something," Artax said. "I didn't want to hurt anyone. Then someone kicked me."  
  
"Oh," Wufei said lamely. He'd begun picking at his food trying to piece something together that he didn't all together understand. To get his mind off of his scattered thoughts, he looked around the domicile noting the strange absence of personal belongings. "Does everyone in this colony keep their homes so empty?"  
  
"I once went to my friend's apartment, it was very full of things. I don't know about anyone else though."  
  
"Where are all your things?"  
  
"I don't own anything."  
  
Wufei eyed Artax critically who looked away and got up from the table taking his dishes with him. His attention focused on menial chores, he wouldn't have to worry about answering any more questions. Wufei watched the wrap on the youth's arm grow reddened as he worked as if he didn't know he was bleeding. Finally, unable to watch anymore, Wufei got up and began helping to clean.  
  
-  
  
For Wufei's benefit, they took the bike, riding to Artax's first job. It was barely six-thirty in the morning, and Wufei felt like dead weight. He slumped forward on the handlebars not paying any mind to the rugged terrain that threw him about in his seat. As soon as he'd done that, a strong arm pulled him back and into the safety of a warm chest. Sleepily, he fell back into it, feeling blissful in his half-conscious state. 


	4. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
It took less time to ride down to the work complex than up to Artax's house. The youth was almost apologetic as he nudged his Chinese charge into wakefulness. Wufei almost fell off the bike, disoriented from sleeping during the bumpy ride, but Artax caught him and let him down to the ground carefully. "I'm sorry that I had to wake you up so early. You must not be used to this," he said steadying the Chinese youth. Then he dismounted his bike and locked it in the stand and took a minute to ease the tautness out of his right arm.  
  
Wufei walked a little to wake himself up, staggering once or twice before becoming awake enough to walk without tripping. He felt less than coherent enough to talk, so he just nodded. Artax nodded back and took Wufei's hand. Instinctively, Wufei wrenched out of the hold feeling a slight betrayed by himself wishing he hadn't pulled away. Apologetically, he reached out his hand again that the Artax hesitantly took.  
  
-  
  
The complex that Artax worked in, to say it was hideously large would be an understatement. Their first stop was at a conference that Wufei had to wait in the reception office for. It only lasted about thirty minutes. Enough time to find out that the doors locked from both outside and inside, impossible to pass through without key codes. The reception room was like everything that he'd seen so far: plain everything, no sound, no designs on the walls or the light blue carpet. The only piece of furniture in the whole room was the flat, metal bench the Chinese man sat on. The soft click of the door leading to the conference room signaled the end of the meeting, and he stood waiting for his guardian. Artax came out with his head bent over a comp pad. It was hooked up to his wristband. Green lights on the band flickered frantically in time with the computer. Without looking up or uttering a single word, they left the room walking again.  
  
The next place they ended up was a laboratory of sorts. There was a team of people all buried in read outs and in the center of the room was a tank. On the other side of the room were a few people crowded around a very well muscled man who was toweling himself off and talking. Everyone was very serious even though they looked like a bunch of teenagers ready to run off to a party.  
  
"So, this is the outsider?" a longhaired man said. He smirked a little. "I read his physical and…"  
  
He was cut off by Artax, who surprisingly took a commanding tone, "We don't have time for idle chat. His physical condition is not only irrelevant, it is none of your concern or mine. Lets get the tests done. My schedule does not allow for fooling around or mistakes. Someone, please, direct Mr. Chang to a spot where he will be comfortably out of the way."  
  
A woman led Wufei to a room with monitors presumably filming the inside of the tank. He was given a chair to sit in but he chose to stand, feeling in no mood to sit when no one else was. The inside of the tank looked very strange, it was full of wires and looked to not have enough space to be able to acquire a human body. Wufei wondered a momentarily how a person was to make it into the confined space. There didn't seem to be an entrance. Then a scantily clad Artax pushed through the sides of the tank and it closed around him like a bubble. His hair began to drift up and the wires embraced him from all sides.  
  
"What's going on?" Wufei asked thoroughly puzzled.  
  
The woman next to him smiled a little, "He's going to go through a virtual battle, and we get to study the bio information we gather through the wires. Where he becomes weakest, to where he becomes strongest."  
  
"How long will it take?"  
  
"About fifty minutes," she replied looking at her watch. "They should start soon. When the tank appears to be expanding is the beginning. Then, to watch the action, you watch this monitor." She pointed to a blank monitor. "He'll be facing off against Reika today."  
  
"That sounds like a woman's name."  
  
"She's one of our best fighters. Currently, she is in a lab in a different compound. Our 'rivals.'"  
  
"Has either of these fighters ever been defeated?"  
  
"Not once. I'd put my money on Reika, though. She has more fighting experience than Artax. This battle is formatted for experience putting the odds against Artax. We want to see him lose for once."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Shh…it's beginning," the woman said pointing their attention to the monitor.  
  
The black screen began to fill out, first with straight lines creating a skeleton of a three dimensional virtual world. It began to take on the look of a dojo. Then the players appeared. Reika, a rather attractive woman with her short black hair pulled out of her face with a headband. She wore a traditional white martial outfit, and two swords in her sash. Artax appeared next in traditional Chinese clothing, black with a red dragon snaking up the side resembling a thin stream of fire. He had no weapons.  
  
Reika made the first move almost too quick for Wufei to see, but no sooner had she drawn her sword then it was wrenched out of her grip and flung into the wall of the dojo to the hilt. She made another dash utilizing sheath and sword trying to hit Artax at least once. He easily avoided each strike contorting his body to accomplish such. The other sword hit the wall much in the fashion as the other one. So, Artax had succeeded in disarming his foe, which was only a small victory for now. Now he and his opponent would have to wear down each other's seemingly inexhaustible energy.  
  
It was like watching a dance, it was so graceful compared to the dog fights Wufei had seen before and during the war. And he got the feeling that Artax was holding back, and why, he couldn't understand. Reika was struggling to make contact, and he was avoiding her all together, even without the use of his arm. She was becoming tired while he maintained a steady stream of energy. This tactic seemed oddly familiar.  
  
Then in the haze of early morning, Wufei made the connection. The injury on his arm, the way he fought on the defensive, and a million other factors clicked. He'd damaged the red suit, but how much, he hadn't been sure. How the pilot had ended up with the same injury as his suit, was a mystery to contend with later.  
  
Artax soon decided that he'd dragged the fight on long enough and finished Reika off with a swift kick to the chest making her pass out. Half an hour had passed since the beginning of the match. The woman next to Wufei made a very sad sound of disappointment and led him out of the room to where Artax had been released.  
  
He was pulling on a pair of pants when they approached. It appeared that he hadn't bothered to towel off with the way that his clothing was clinging to his body. People buzzed around him like flies and were talking quite animatedly while he answered questions with his sullen tone. Wufei had been quite furious up to that point on not being told by Artax that he'd been in the red suit, but all his anger evaporated when he saw the pale soldier. Artax, even though he was being bombarded by discussion around him had turned to watch Wufei and the woman approach.  
  
"Leina, are you upset that she lost?" Artax asked. "I didn't kill her."  
  
"You're so full of yourself!" the woman next to Wufei spat, venom in her voice. "My Reika can beat you any day of the week."  
  
To this comment, Artax lost interest in talking to her nodding his head in apology as he began speaking to the other scientists again. Wufei made his way over to his guardian and stood like a statue next to him. Leina's voice boomed over everyone else's, "Don't you dare ignore me, Artax! If that is your real name. I have half a mind to challenge you just to teach you a lesson."  
  
"Why do you express such malice towards me?"  
  
"Because an outsider like you just comes in and takes over! You're some hot shot from who knows where. Why do you get special treatment? Where did you learn to fight?!"  
  
"You can look up my files. It's all there."  
  
"I've seen your files. I don't believe them at all. You have no place of birth, you have no birthplace, you have no parents. Everything in your file is current! You're a fucking bastard!"  
  
"And that means what to you?" Artax asked glancing at his wristband. "It's not imperative that you know my parent's names. Look, I have to go now. We'll continue this some other time."  
  
He took Wufei's hand in his ignoring the chatter from everyone around him. Leina shot him one last hateful look before he left the lab. She also ignored everyone's upset talk about callousness. She did not need to be lectured.  
  
-  
  
"What's the name of your mobile suit?" Wufei asked after a while of almost insufferable silence.  
  
Artax's hold on Wufei's hand tightened a moment before he responded, "Amrita."  
  
"Why didn't you tell me you were the one that fought me?"  
  
"It doesn't matter," Artax half growled as they turned another corner. "You would've found out sooner or later. You're very smart and perceptive."  
  
"It matters to me," the Chinese pilot said irritated. He was not prepared for what happened next. In the blink of an eye, his back was against the smooth white metal wall of the halls they'd been traveling through with a resounding boom. Artax held his arms to his sides and against the wall with little effort and took his time to just stare into Wufei's eyes.  
  
The Chinese pilot didn't know what to expect under the other youth's appraising gaze. At one moment, it seemed like he might kiss him and another it seemed like he'd just tear him apart.  
  
"Please, don't make trouble," Artax said after a while easing his hold on Wufei almost daring him to make a move. Then he added as he stepped back bowing a little, "And, please forgive me, I almost forgot about the dragon clan's strong sense of honor."  
  
After straightening himself out a little, Wufei looked at Artax who had slipped back into his normal, submissive self. His head was bowed, and his body posture had slackened. He looked like a kicked dog. Almost apologetic, Wufei tried to smooth everything out, "I'd like to see Amrita. I didn't get a good look from the monitors in my gundam."  
  
Artax looked at his wristband, "I pilot in thirty minutes. You'll be seeing your friends then. After about two hours, I'll be back. Then you can come see Amrita if you want, but I'll be busy testing. Testing normally takes anywhere from twenty to thirty minutes. By then, it'll be about eleven thirty."  
  
"Is this your everyday schedule?" Wufei asked aghast at how tightly packed his guardian's schedule was so far.  
  
"No, it varies. The only days that are remotely predictable are Fridays and Sundays. Today is Tuesday."  
  
"Where are we going right now?"  
  
"Lunch," Artax replied holding out his hand, which Wufei took already becoming accustomed to the gesture.  
  
As it would turn out, all five gundam pilots went to take a look at Amrita. Artax led them walking fast as if he wished not to be there which he most assuredly was thinking, and then Titien brought up the rear a little glad that she didn't have to deal with everyone all by herself anymore.  
  
Upon entering the mobile suit hangar, Artax was crowded by many people holding computer pads, tools, and various other things. Taking control, Artax abandoned the five pilots and Titien and lead the group of scientists nodding and looking over what was presented to him.  
  
"Follow the leader," Titien said ushering the pilots in the general direction everyone else had gone off in.  
  
After a few minutes of walking around, they stumbled onto Artax working hurriedly with the same group that had dragged him off earlier. He was arm deep in wires and keypads probing deeper into the suit's arm. The suit he was working on was unpainted, definitely not his. Seemingly giving up, he withdrew and stepped back. Then he hurled himself into the small space he'd been working in with a solid kick. Smoke erupted from where his foot had landed and he crawled backwards taking a moment to stomp out the flames that had begun to grow on his clothing. Everyone stood around puzzled at his impulsive show of violence. Then a loud, anguished beep filled the hangar echoing off the walls amplifying the sound until it was almost unbearable. As everyone moved to cover their ears, Artax walked towards the sound coming from the entrance hatch of the suit.  
  
The hatch burst open and a limp body flew into Artax who caught it stumbling back a little. He laid out the sopping wet figure and prepped to perform CPR. The boy laid out looked to be around the age of Artax, maybe a little older. Methodically, Artax went about reviving the pilot and was rewarded, or not, when a pair of arms snaked around his neck. He wrenched himself out of the grip wiping his lips of the thick liquid that oozed off of the now grinning pilot who'd been almost dead a few minutes before.  
  
"My…h-hero…" he coughed turning over to expel the remnants of fluid caught in his throat. Artax recovered quickly from the shock of being kissed and hit the youth's back to help. When the pilot was through upchucking, he thrust himself upon Artax., and dazedly strattled the pale youth's stomach. "I've dreamed of this many times. I'm so happy."  
  
"I'm beginning to think you tampered with your suit for this. You could have died, Anthony," Artax said softly pushing the other pilot off of him.  
  
"And how fortunate I am to have someone like you to save me!" Anthony cried stumbling to his feet and proceeding to wrap Artax into a wet hug.  
  
"I'll carry you to sick bay if you promise to do no more stunts like this," Artax said with the other pilot hanging off of him.  
  
"And you'll go on a date with me?"  
  
Everyone watched the scene, the scientists less than pleased, the gundam pilots thoroughly confused, and Titien rolling her eyes.  
  
"Anthony has been pining for the Artax's attention since day one. Don't worry about this, it doesn't happen everyday. Just…often enough to annoy the hell out of everyone," Titien explained.  
  
"Day one?" Quatre asked.  
  
"Artax arrived here about four years ago," Titien said watching Artax hoist Anthony on his back.  
  
"I was under the impression that people that live here were born here."  
  
"He's the only outsider aside from you five. Already, he has become vital to us and some people resent that. Makes you wonder where he was trained, and raised."  
  
"Does anyone know?" Duo asked before Quatre could.  
  
"I'm sure someone does…but it hasn't been made public. Protecting him, maybe," Titien said thoughtfully watching the soggy pair make their way out to sickbay.  
  
"So, our man gets special treatment, eh? Ah…the benefits of being the best," Duo sighed eyeing Heero meaningfully for a brief moment.  
  
"I don't think so, Maxwell," Wufei said turning to leave.  
  
--  
  
Over in the mess hall, Artax picked at his greens. Everything seemed to serve some sort of a purpose and the food was no exception. Wufei digressed as he ate, that the food was not made for taste, but for nutrition. He looked across at the table at his lunch partner who seemed lost in his own thoughts.  
  
"What does that do?" he asked pointing at the band around Artax's wrist. "You've been constantly messing around with it since we met."  
  
Artax looked a little dazed, then pressed a button on the band. Music began filling the air, not classic works like those that Quatre and Trowa seemed to be addicted to. This music was different and old sounding. Pre-war, but during war. It was in a language Wufei wasn't familiar with. As if on queue, Artax began to explain, "This is Korean music. A long dead genre called 'hip-hop.'"  
  
"Are you Korean?" Wufei almost whispered.  
  
"No, but my friend is."  
  
"You said you didn't have friends."  
  
"I don't."  
  
"That doesn't make any sense! You're contradicting yourself!"  
  
"Hyejin does not speak, does not think, and does not move…"  
  
"Is Hyejin a doll?" Wufei snapped, cutting Artax off. The tedium of the conversation was getting to him.  
  
Artax closed his eyes and pressed the button to his wristband cutting off the sound. He stood up slowly from the table as if he'd fall apart if he were any faster. "It's time to go," he said gathering his things up to go. He looked as if he'd just died and Wufei felt an overwhelming load of guilt press his shoulders.  
  
-  
  
Everyone was very happy to see Wufei make his appearance in the airy waiting room. Artax loomed around the doorway until he saw the guardian approach and shake his charge's hand. Then he left.  
  
Wufei tried to keep Artax in his sights as long as possible, but as soon as he entered the room, his attention was arrested by his little missed pilots. Duo let out a squeal of excitement and hurried to greet his friend while everyone else lounged around the couches in the room.  
  
The stranger that greeted Wufei turned out to be Heero and Duo's guardian. She was fairly tall and slender. "Hello. My name is Titien," she said in a firm feminine voice. She wore a man's business suit that hugged her figure. And her long, wavy black hair was tied over her shoulder flowing to her waist.  
  
"Wufei Chang," the Chinese pilot said ignoring Duo for a moment.  
  
"I know," Titien smiled conspiratorially. "Duo has had many things to say about you."  
  
"How much?" Wufei asked no longer surprised at who knew about him and how.  
  
"Enough," Titien assured him.  
  
-  
  
"Last night, I challenged Titien to an arm wrestling match and you wouldn't guess from her looks, but she's one strong chick! I guess that's the way it is with everyone here. You all look really weird, and that's your cover, I guess. From what I've seen here, it seems that any one person here could kick my ass. Pull their name out of a hat or something," Duo ranted. "What exactly goes on in here?"  
  
Titien had been very quiet for a long time, and took a moment to stand up. "Our goal here is to stretch human ability to the limits. We don't take the time to get dressed professionally for our jobs, because living is our job. Everyone on this colony is a soldier, male or female. And everyone on this colony works on some form of warfare, development, testing, conceptual, political, etcetera. I am in the political sect. As you may have already guessed. And I am thoroughly researched on the gundams from the war. We have already judged you. Evaluating your integrity, credibility, and physical attributes. No disrespect to you, any of you, but we do not find any reason to fear you. Your guerilla tactics wouldn't work in this colony. It would not only be ineffectual, but, you'd bring more harm upon yourselves and your government by utilizing your old infiltrate and destroy techniques."  
  
"I dropped the idea last night," Duo admitted wringing his hands.  
  
"I think you are all good people," Quatre added. "It would be shameless to come here and destroy your natural order any more than we already have. Your colony is beautiful."  
  
"Who is the best soldier?" Heero asked absently leaning against the wall behind Duo.  
  
"I don't think that it's very important," Titien said frowning a little.  
  
Wufei looked around from his perch on the arm of the couch and spoke halfheartedly, "Care to sate a tireless curiosity?"  
  
"Artax," the woman sighed sitting down glancing tiredly at her watch. "Foremost in all of our fields of study."  
  
He'd expected it but then again, he was surprised all the same. Wufei nearly choked thinking about the youth he'd be biding his time with for who knew how long. A cold pair of eyes locked on him and he could feel them. Heero, ever the observant one remembered the name and was looking to his fellow pilot for answers. One by one, the other pilots caught on and fixed their attention on him.  
  
Wufei shifted around a little bit where he sat debating how to explain things. "What do you want me to say?" he asked a little unnerved.  
  
"What is Artax like?" Quatre coaxed.  
  
"He is quiet, shy, and has a great deal of self-discipline," Wufei said choosing his word carefully.  
  
"That's all?" Trowa asked sensing his friend's restraint.  
  
"All that I can understand about him."  
  
"What do you think of him? What does he make you feel?" Duo pried always more interested in the more suggestive side to things.  
  
"I think he's a woman," Wufei snorted. "His manner annoys me."  
  
"That's mean, Wuffie. I could say plenty about you," Duo remarked. "I bet he's not so bad."  
  
"I think he's in denial," Trowa confided to Quatre who nodded grasping his lover's hand while Duo baited Wufei.  
  
"He doesn't want to accept…no…rather impose responsibility upon himself…for another," Quatre whispered.  
  
"Another?"  
  
"I can sense someone faded, floated like a buoy in Wufei's mind awash in a sea if guilt…self-discipline and hatred. I need to explain later."  
  
"I understand," Trowa assured Quatre smiling faintly at him.  
  
"You spoil me," Quatre whispered close to his lover's ear sending puffs of warm, humid air to tickle the skin. A sweet smile graced Trowa's features, and he bowed his head shyly. For some reason, security was not an issue for the majority of the gundam pilots. The colony, in such a short time, had already made them feel oddly welcome, and the good vibes Quatre had been receiving reinforced their comfort. Comfortable enough to smile, talk, and almost forget their main prerogative.  
  
-  
  
Artax debated for a moment on whether to fetch Wufei to see Amrita or rather, just check her over himself and push on in the schedule. In the end, he decided to do as he'd promised earlier and went to get Wufei.  
  
Stealthily, he made his way into the waiting room seeing everyone absorbed in their own respective conversations. Even Titien was speaking animatedly with one of them, Heero. Artax almost felt guilty interrupting them all. He cleared his throat and spoke just loud enough to be heard, "…Mr. Chang." Slowly, all eyes fixed on him and he adjusted the yellow lens glasses wanting to disappear. "Do you still wish to see Amrita?"  
  
Wufei's skin pricked when accusing eyes settled on him. Duo smirked at him, and Wufei glared back. Quatre and Trowa didn't seem too surprised but curious. And Heero waited patiently for something to happen so that he could get back to interrogating Titien.  
  
"Yes…I would like to see your mobile suit," Wufei said making sure that he had the other pilot's attention. He had no idea what thoughts they'd been entertaining, all though Duo seemed a little more than transparent with his sloppy grin. He wanted to make it clear that nothing had sprouted in the past twelve hours and nothing would sprout since he already made it clear that he found Artax to be less than anything but an annoyance to him.  
  
Duo sighed, "Gah, I knew it. You're so square, Wu." He walked past the Chinese pilot nudging him and adding quietly, "It wouldn't hurt. He's pretty."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind, Maxwell," Wufei said icily but inwardly groaning because it was true 


	5. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
As it would turn out, all five gundam pilots went to take a look at Amrita. Artax led them walking fast as if he wished not to be there which he most assuredly was thinking, and then Titien brought up the rear a little glad that she didn't have to deal with everyone all by herself anymore.  
  
Upon entering the mobile suit hangar, Artax was crowded by many people holding computer pads, tools, and various other things. Taking control, Artax abandoned the five pilots and Titien and lead the group of scientists nodding and looking over what was presented to him.  
  
"Follow the leader," Titien said ushering the pilots in the general direction everyone else had gone off in.  
  
After a few minutes of walking around, they stumbled onto Artax working hurriedly with the same group that had dragged him off earlier. He was arm deep in wires and keypads probing deeper into the suit's arm. The suit he was working on was unpainted, definitely not his. Seemingly giving up, he withdrew and stepped back. Then he hurled himself into the small space he'd been working in with a solid kick. Smoke erupted from where his foot had landed and he crawled backwards taking a moment to stomp out the flames that had begun to grow on his clothing. Everyone stood around puzzled at his impulsive show of violence. Then a loud, anguished beep filled the hangar echoing off the walls amplifying the sound until it was almost unbearable. As everyone moved to cover their ears, Artax walked towards the sound coming from the entrance hatch of the suit.  
  
The hatch burst open and a limp body flew into Artax who caught it stumbling back a little. He laid out the sopping wet figure and prepped to perform CPR. The boy laid out looked to be around the age of Artax, maybe a little older. Methodically, Artax went about reviving the pilot and was rewarded, or not, when a pair of arms snaked around his neck. He wrenched himself out of the grip wiping his lips of the thick liquid that oozed off of the now grinning pilot who'd been almost dead a few minutes before.  
  
"My…h-hero…" he coughed turning over to expel the remnants of fluid caught in his throat. Artax recovered quickly from the shock of being kissed and hit the youth's back to help. When the pilot was through upchucking, he thrust himself upon Artax., and dazedly strattled the pale youth's stomach. "I've dreamed of this many times. I'm so happy."  
  
"I'm beginning to think you tampered with your suit for this. You could have died, Anthony," Artax said softly pushing the other pilot off of him.  
  
"And how fortunate I am to have someone like you to save me!" Anthony cried stumbling to his feet and proceeding to wrap Artax into a wet hug.  
  
"I'll carry you to sick bay if you promise to do no more stunts like this," Artax said with the other pilot hanging off of him.  
  
"And you'll go on a date with me?"  
  
Everyone watched the scene, the scientists less than pleased, the gundam pilots thoroughly confused, and Titien rolling her eyes.  
  
"Anthony has been pining for the Artax's attention since day one. Don't worry about this, it doesn't happen everyday. Just…often enough to annoy the hell out of everyone," Titien explained.  
  
"Day one?" Quatre asked.  
  
"Artax arrived here about four years ago," Titien said watching Artax hoist Anthony on his back.  
  
"I was under the impression that people that live here were born here."  
  
"He's the only outsider aside from you five. Already, he has become vital to us and some people resent that. Makes you wonder where he was trained, and raised."  
  
"Does anyone know?" Duo asked before Quatre could.  
  
"I'm sure someone does…but it hasn't been made public. Protecting him, maybe," Titien said thoughtfully watching the soggy pair make their way out to sickbay.  
  
"So, our man gets special treatment, eh? Ah…the benefits of being the best," Duo sighed eyeing Heero meaningfully for a brief moment.  
  
"I don't think so, Maxwell," Wufei said turning to leave.  
  
-  
  
"Why name your suit Amrita?" Wufei asked running his palm along the cool, smooth surface of the forearm. He looked a minute at his red reflection, not recognizing himself for a minute. He saw a boy around the age of sixteen with his hair pulled back into a pony tail, his eyes narrow and unforgiving, and he stood ramrod straight like a statue. He quickly looked away, refusing to acknowledge the odd boy he saw reflected in the metal.  
  
Artax walked upon the length of his mobile suit's shoulders with a computer pad in his hand, "Amrita was the cup of the gods from which they drank their wine…I read a book once, called Amrita."  
  
"You read a book about the cup of the gods?" Wufei scoffed.  
  
"No. I read about a woman."  
  
"Named Amrita?"  
  
"No. I believe the name was a metaphor for her life's experiences."  
  
Wufei shrugged and decided that pacing around the mobile suit wasn't going to help him understand anything any better. The mobile suit had a definite style to it similar to the new gundam models. Its design was thin and accented. No other mobile suit could compare with its exterior design. It had seven black slit eyes, an animal like head with grille's on the snout, long fingers and limbs, and a sleek figure like a cat's. The suit seemed to somehow resemble its pilot.  
  
-  
  
The rest of the day went by like a textbook, in and out of every room imaginable save for the last stop of the day where Wufei had to wait around again for close to two hours. Artax emerged from the room looking very tired as if he'd fall asleep if he sat down.  
  
-  
  
Back at Artax's home, he left Wufei at the door and came back with a book. It was old but in impeccable condition. The title was, Amrita.  
  
"I think it'll…help you realize things…" Artax said running his hands through his hair. Slightly surprised, Wufei accepted it examining the cover, an Asian woman's face with yellow tears set against a green backdrop.  
  
"I'll return it when I am through with it…"  
  
-  
  
Back on Earth, Relena sat in her room with an illness that had taken her shortly after the pilots had left. She sat in bed with her mini-laptop idly checking her mail and browsing websites. Then she happened upon the date, and realized that the pilots should have made it to the colony by then. Almost frantic, she grabbed the phone next to her bed and dialed in for colony L1 where the war faction rep resided. Her stomach turned in knots as she waited for a pick-up.  
  
After a little while, a deep, hoarse voice picked up, "What on god's earth do you want?"  
  
For a minute, Relena was without words. She'd woken him up and almost regretted calling. "Have the pilots contacted us yet?"  
  
"No, give them a week…at least. Rest your pretty little head. I'm sure they're fine," Mr. Adih mumbled followed by the click of the receiver.  
  
Relena didn't hang up her own phone for a few minutes out of shock for his tone. But then again, he was partially asleep, so she could excuse it.  
  
She lay back on her dark blue sheets, that she'd chosen for the color's resemblance to Heero's eyes. She'd been a little upset when she'd bought it that the other side of the sheets and comforter were violet. Now, she fondly thought that the two colors complimented each other and would not sleep with any sheets other than the ones she lay on now.  
  
Please…come back safe to me…Heero, she prayed before she slipped into slumber.  
  
-  
  
It had been about four days since the pilots had arrived at the covert colony. Everyday seemed a repeat of the other. On Friday, the day that Artax was supposed to have off, he got a call for work to make up for how loose his schedule was since he took Wufei in. Now, it was Sunday, Artax's other day off and Wufei was very curious to know how it'd be. They'd woken up as early as any other day probably due to conditioning, and were eating breakfast.  
  
"So…you get today off, right?" Wufei asked not bothering to look up. His guardian's expression and posture didn't change enough to warrant his attention away from his food.  
  
"Yeah," Artax replied getting up from the floor table already finished.  
  
"What do you do on these days?"  
  
"I work with the children and I read," Artax replied, his words mingling with the flow of water as he washed the dishes. The mention of reading was a like a mental slap in the face to Wufei who had repeatedly forgotten about the book that he'd been lent.  
  
"You work with children?…I haven't seen any around here."  
  
"They live in a different sect. I like them…" Artax said trailing off becoming lost in thought.  
  
Wufei spent a few minutes thinking about what Artax must have looked like as a child, how he might have acted. It became a little depressing when his mind conjured up an image of a child with flaxen hair combed out of his eyes sitting by himself, away from all the other children his age.  
  
"What were you like when you were a child?" Wufei asked stacking his dishes.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"…How did you act?"  
  
"I was obedient," Artax said with a little reluctance.  
  
Wufei set his dishes in the sink and began scrubbing them. He looked at the boy next to him and his blank stare. He had retreated back into himself leaving his body to carry out normal life robotically. What could have been so bad to make him this way? His manner and poise rivaled Heero's soldier persona.  
  
"Have they contacted the Alliance yet?" Wufei asked to suit the mood.  
  
"No…the political sect is watching Earth news to see whether it is worth the risk. They don't want to expose this colony if they don't have to. They must assess your 'worth' and find out why you were sent."  
  
"We already told you," Wufei stated.  
  
"They don't think that you were told everything you should have known," Artax replied blandly setting the dishes out to dry on the countertop. "What do you think of the Alliance?"  
  
"They are like any other government. 'Made by the people for the people,'" Wufei said sounding a little like a company answering machine.  
  
"You don't seem too impressed."  
  
"I'm not," Wufei admitted.  
  
"Then why do you serve it?" Artax asked looking at Wufei critically.  
  
There was silence for the longest time as Wufei searched for an answer finally landing on one, a lame one, but an answer, "Because I am ordered to."  
  
Artax leaned forward barely brushing his cheek against Wufei's making the Chinese youth's blood burn and his breath catch. His guardian spoke, whispering with his warm breath washing over the Chinese pilot's pale skin, "You must have a better reason." Then he drew back and left the room and a very confused Wufei.  
  
"….A…better…reason…" he echoed wonderingly.  
  
-  
  
The colony's design was so similar to Earth, even the weather. The spring air was laden with dew cooling, even though the breeze was warm. Wufei sat under a sakura tree cradled by the soft earth and papery trunk. The laughter of children barely registered in his mind as he poured through the tear laced pages of Amrita. It was full of so much irony, happy but sad at the same time. It reminded him of himself, but he had no fond memories to call upon. Everything was miserable, and even worse when he thought about them. Ryuchiro had left again, and Wufei couldn't read anymore for the moment. He set the book down and looked around. The sun was abusing to his eyes and he could only make out black blurs.  
  
He blinked a few times and made out the shape of Artax in a mob of small bodies. All the children were eerily fit and lean for kids their age. Even he wasn't so thin when he was a child with all his martial arts training. Little girls and little boys crowded the pale soldier, they cooed and hugged onto him as if he were a teddy bear. A few children wandered off but not too far so that they might spar.  
  
Artax was speaking seated in the grass, and the children let go of him one by one. Those who had been sparring joined the group and lined up. A cute girl that was only as tall as his hip placed her dainty little hands in his outstretched palms. He held them and began walking in a circle with her faster and faster until her feet began to lift off of the ground. Soon, she was above his head, with bell like peals of laughter. Her burgundy curls caught the wind and flickered like fire. The faded, oversized t-shirt she wore flapped in the wind along with her frayed khakis. Wufei was surprised she hadn't thrown up yet and sat enthralled up to when Artax set the child down and took the next one's hands.  
  
He watched them play for a long time. Then the curtain of surreal peace came crashing down when he heard the shouts coming from around the curve of the walk. Artax sat all the children down and they sat in respectful silence awaiting the arrival of the messenger.  
  
A thin girl, with almost no endowments, in bright clothing ran up to Artax with a comp pad, which he took and gave a quick look over. He gave a quick look to Wufei frowning and looking back to the information he'd just been handed. Everyone listened as he spoke and Wufei got up and began to trek over to where they sat. He didn't make it there before his guardian was off running down the way the messenger had just come.  
  
"Don't worry. He'll be back later," the messenger assured Wufei as he approached. Despite the optimism, the Chinese pilot couldn't help the worry growing in his chest. He looked in the direction Artax had left until he felt tugging at his pant leg and found a group of children looking up at him expectantly.  
  
--  
  
The meeting had already started by the time Artax had arrived. He took his seat between Titien and vice commander of operations, Akasi. The Alliance was on the move, and had taken some very aggressive courses of action.  
  
"This is what is airing on televisions all over Alliance space," Dogon stated, the room dimmed and images flashed upon the screen at the head of the room.  
  
A very professionally dressed woman sat primly behind a desk, her short brown hair curled about her face. Her voice was very thick and commanding, "A little over two weeks ago, five heroes from the past wars were sent into space to save us yet again from a new threat. There is a covert colony in this part of space." She pulled up a vid screen and used her index finger to point to the exact position. "The pilots were to send confirmation a week ago that they had reached the colony safe. And make reports on treaty progress. The Alliance has yet to hear from them. Prominent figures in the Alliance like Relena Peacecraft, Ren Bates, and various others fear the worst."  
  
A new clip began. Three people seated around a table, two men and one woman. They all looked over notes as they talked. The man furthest to the right with the red blazer talked first, "War heroes, the gundam pilots, have been taken prisoner by colony 666. Alliance is preparing to declare war on the covert colony that is located…"  
  
The clip cut off and Dogon clasped his hands together in front of himself on the table. "There is more, dozens more and they are multiplying like rabbits. We sent a hailing message to the Alliance earlier in the week after checking the gundams over. They have not returned our message, and this is why."  
  
Erriji nodded and looked to the three guardians, "Today, a new task is set before you. You must find out as much as you can about the Alliance as possible through the pilots. Do not scare or threaten them. Coax it out of them, it may take a while, but whatever you can extract will help us all in the end."  
  
Bijoe frowned, "So…we can't just send them back."  
  
"That'd be foolish. They are the cause, thus they contain the cure. And it would only serve the Alliance's vices if we send their pilots back. It would be showing them that we fold under the slightest weight," Titien explained.  
  
"So…it'd be like…'threaten me and I'm your fool'…" Bijoe almost whispered rubbing her fingers together.  
  
"Exactly," Dogon said. "'Never negotiate with terrorists.' That's what the Alliance is…a large group of terrorists. We must treat them accordingly for now."  
  
Akasi nodded and stood up from the table, "We trust you to do your best." Everyone else stood as well and left, all except for the three guardians.  
  
"Good luck," Titien said and gathered some papers from the table before leaving.  
  
Bijoe took that as her queue to leave as well and she did quickly to hide her nervousness. Artax looked at his wristband then around the room that was in an organized sort of disarray. Discs littered the oak table, and some comp pads were left behind as well. He took it upon himself to get it into some kind of order before taking his leave.  
  
--  
  
Everyone had long gone home by the time Artax returned to the park. Wufei's attention was sprung into action after being bored with staring at the green turf around him for hours on end. When the messenger girl had left, forgetting that he was a potential danger to anyone, he had entertained thoughts of running off and wreaking havoc all over the colony just to show that they couldn't rein him in like some sort of an animal. Then he dropped all those ideas thinking about how sad Artax, his guardian would be and that he'd been accorded every freedom he should have expected and more seeing as how his position in this foreign place was less than creditable. So he sat and waited under the cypress tree inspecting his hands, shredding grass, meditating, and whatever else he could think to do alone.  
  
When his guardian did show up around sundown, it felt like a thousand years had passed when it had only been a few hours. He was so tempted to jump out of joy and command Artax's attention that he stayed frozen in place sitting among mangled blades of grass and leaves and his mouth was set in a frown of indifference. For some reason, it never came easy to him to express himself correctly. When he felt something, he often expressed the opposite emotion.  
  
"Do you want to go for a walk?" Artax asked when he was within hearing range.  
  
Wufei shrugged and joined Artax's careful retreating figure.  
  
--  
  
They walked for a while in silence. Wufei looked around at the wild foliage all weaving in and out of any crevice it could fit. It was completely different from what he was used to. Artax walked the bike looking about sedately.  
  
"Where are you from?" Wufei asked finally tired of the silence.  
  
"It's not important," Artax replied quietly.  
  
"What is important?" was the cross retort.  
  
"Resolution of conflict."  
  
"Ofcourse…" Wufei mumbled.  
  
"What do you think of it? The Alliance."  
  
"I don't think much about it. The Alliance is like any other government," Wufei lied.  
  
"Corrupt, you mean?" Artax stated more than asked.  
  
Wufei frowned and didn't speak.  
  
--  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Every time I see him, I get the feeling that I should know him. The…aura…sadness is so familiar. It's frustrating."  
  
"It'll come to you. You just have to wait for when it decides to show itself."  
  
"You're right…thank you."  
  
--  
  
"Do you have a picture of Artax from when he first came to the colony?" Quatre asked Bijoe while he picked at his food. It was nothing like he was used to, but he'd live.  
  
Trowa gave him a questioning glance before smiling a little remembering their conversation from the night before.  
  
"There should be some in file," Bijoe said not bothering to look up from her bowl of rice. "Why?"  
  
"I'm just curious." 


	6. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
"Can I sit with you a while?" Quatre asked Wufei who was reclining stiffly on the couch in the waiting room. When he didn't respond, Quatre cut straight to the chase, "I know who he was."  
  
Wufei threw him a half curious, half warning glance and waited for him to continue.  
  
Clearing his throat, Quatre forced himself to talk, "He's was very rich. His father is Nicholas Wilde, a lesser-known name to the public, but far more powerful amongst the bluebloods than even Winner. Mr. Wilde's son disappeared around the time Operation Meteor began. Since all attention was on us…the story never reached the news."  
  
"How do you know that Artax is him?" Wufei asked knowing how hard it'd be to forget his guardian's face.  
  
"I met him once at this big congregation. We were really young, probably six. One of my sisters wanted to trade clothes with him and he consented. I was with my father the entire time, so I could only watch. Mr. Wilde seemed to appear out of thin air in the small, secluded place they had changed in. He grabbed his son and dragged him away. My sister was really scared."  
  
"Why don't you call him 'Artax'?"  
  
Quatre looked a little surprised at the question, but then shook his head, "That's not his name."  
  
--  
  
Wufei couldn't sleep as he thought on Quatre's words. He tossed and turned finally settling for lying on his side and staring off into the dark. It was a little creepy, he'd never stayed up late enough for Artax to fall asleep before him, and in sleep, Artax never made a sound and never moved. But he was warm, and his warmth carried on over to the pull out bed next to his.  
  
He was close to drifting off when he heard the click of a lock. Wufei looked to the door, around the room and settled on the unmistakable outline of Artax's body. He was in front of the door Wufei had gotten used to being locked and almost forgotten about. Pale light poured from behind the opening door and Artax slowly stepped in closing it behind himself.  
  
Wufei fell asleep before Artax emerged, incapable to hold onto consciousness any longer.  
  
--  
  
At the breakfast table that morning, Wufei watched every move Artax made. The way that he shrugged the hair out of his eyes, how he casually ate his rice in segments, he dipped his chopsticks in gojoojang before each bite, and many other almost robotic things. It was mesmerizing.  
  
"I've been wondering, what's in that locked room?"  
  
"That's not something crucial for you to know," Artax replied.  
  
"I want to know," Wufei fumed.  
  
Exasperatedly, Artax set his bowl down and got up from the table. "Don't be upset. It doesn't involve you."  
  
Guilt quickly replaced anger and Wufei felt bad that he'd made his soft- spoken guardian upset and cold. "I'm just bored out of my mind here. I'm useless like this."  
  
"You're used to working a lot? What do you do other than pilot mobile suits?"  
  
"I had been without a mobile suit for two years. I worked at the Preventers. Then I was summoned to Stardust Complex and handed a mobile suit. I'm a 'peacekeeper'," Wufei said spacing out a little. "Why is it that I can answer all your tedious questions and you can't answer mine?"  
  
"You really want to know. If you know, would you keep it here? You'll never enter that room again."  
  
Wufei nodded and took Artax's offered hand.  
  
"Keep your promise," he was warned as the door opened.  
  
It was all white and sterile looking from the doorway and the hum of machinery barely reached Wufei's ears. He looked around and his gaze rested on a hospital bed. Lying in the middle of it was a very thin youth with black hair pooled around his head.  
  
"Who is that?"  
  
"Someone I need to protect."  
  
"You'll never give me a straight answer, will you?" Wufei mused a little annoyed.  
  
"I can't tell you his name…for his safety."  
  
"What can I do with his name if I'm stuck here?"  
  
"I'm thinking about when you go back to Preventers."  
  
"I already know who you are," Wufei said.  
  
Artax didn't answer for a while, "Winner told you."  
  
"I won't tell anyone if you don't want them to know. Although, I'm sure that Trowa knows by now."  
  
"If it spreads, another war will start."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"I can feel it," Artax said sitting next to Hyejin's bed and stroking his hair. "It's like a storm. It's been brewing for a long time, and soon the rain will fall. I want to outlast the beginnings."  
  
Those words were cryptic, but they strangely made sense. Wufei stared blankly as thoughts of holding Artax and comforting him. He shook them away and refocused on his surroundings.  
  
A severe feeling of longing lanced through his body that he didn't quite understand. He felt as if he were suffocating.  
  
All the affection Artax was showing towards his comatose friend, the love between Kat and Trowa, the magnetism Heero and Duo had, Wufei wanted for himself. The warmth he hadn't been shown since birth. He left the room, stifling unshed tears, and trying to get himself under control.  
  
Artax followed him after a while meticulously closing and latching the door behind himself. Wufei was already under control by then and building a denser shield to hide his emotions behind.  
  
--  
  
"The reports have gotten worse. We sent another hail after our last meeting, and they still haven't replied," Erriji frowned.  
  
"Why can't we just send them back? Stop all this…" Bijoe whined.  
  
"We've already gone over this. We cannot let the Alliance think they can control us with threats. We can defeat them in a war. We have something to fight for," Akasi answered.  
  
"Maybe we should send…someone to negotiate," Titien suggested.  
  
"Do we want to take the risk?" Hithien reminded everyone lightly rapping on the table.  
  
"No," Erriji responded.  
  
"So, we're just going to wait for a war?" Bijoe asked.  
  
"We wait for them to threaten us to our face," Akasi said.  
  
"Do you think that the gundam pilots would speak on our behalf?" Kanan asked adjusting his glasses.  
  
The three guardians shifted around in their seats with pensive expressions etched on their faces.  
  
"We have shown them every courtesy they can expect…seeing as how they have not ascertained their role here. No one has complained," Titien spoke softly. "Our actions are understandable here, and it's up to the Alliance to…to send a transmission so we can start negotiation on the release of their soldiers. It would be a textbook operation if they weren't wanting to start a war."  
  
"So, it's time to hold our breaths and wait," Akasi said massaging his temples.  
  
"Alright…Bijoe, Artax, Titien, you three have permission now to explain everything to them. Give them the bare facts and let them translate it to whatever they want. Judge their creditability from that and watch them for a while. Report to me tomorrow with your verdict and twenty page essays following the nine hundred twenty-five format."  
  
"Yes sir," the guardians said all at once.  
  
--  
  
Wufei, Trowa, and Quatre all sat at a corner of the waiting room in silence.  
  
"Something is happening. The Alliance is up to something," Quatre said in his first words against the government.  
  
Trowa and Wufei looked at his questioningly and he took it as queue to continue. "We're going to have to choose sides soon. I've been having second thoughts about the Alliance since we were sent here. To be honest, I think if we'd come here under more cordial conditions, I'd like it here a lot. I mean, I like it here anyway. Just looking outside…It's like Eden. Not the manicured, industrial look of Earth. If this colony and Earth were to have a war today, who would you fight for?"  
  
Wufei shrugged and Trowa held Quatre's hand to show that his loyalty belonged only to one person. Duo was conveniently walking by at that time and stopped to think, "I dunno Quatre. Two wars and then switching sides is kind of a waste isn't it?" Then he looked at Wufei and Trowa remembering the Marimeia incident. "But then again, some of us don't care so much about that, I guess."  
  
Wufei rolled his eyes, "When will you let it die, Maxwell?"  
  
"Preserve life, Wuffie," Duo countered.  
  
"Both of you, stop," Quatre scolded. "It was a rhetorical question, anyway. My point was just…whose morals you agree with so far."  
  
"I like what I know," Duo said.  
  
"I want to get to know this colony. It seems so peaceful here even with all the militant technology. There seems to be just enough technology dedicated to saving life," Quatre explained. Duo nodded.  
  
"But there is 'challenging' here," Wufei said. "I don't know exactly what it is, but this woman wanted to challenge Artax to, I think, a duel."  
  
"A duel?" Quatre exclaimed.  
  
Trowa took this time to speak up, "These people are honor bound like clans, and they happen to develop weaponry here. It's only natural that they'd use it to resolve disputes."  
  
"That's stupid," Duo frowned. "What happened to talks over a cup of coffee?"  
  
"Nothing," Trowa replied. "It's just…some people really have problems."  
  
"Oh, I get it."  
  
"I think that most people here like quiet living," Quatre said. "It's genius if you really think about it. 'A big dog needn't bark so much'."  
  
Everyone nodded.  
  
--  
  
"This is the latest news clip, it's a press conference with Relena Peacecraft," vice operations manager of foreign affairs, Eingrad, explained as the lights dimmed.  
  
-  
  
"The gundam pilots are being held within the covert colony 666, and are being refused release. We, the Alliance, are preparing for conflict. The colony is believed to be heavily armed, so we may need to begin training a peacekeeper's army. For the peace of Alliance space, we must disarm them by any means possible and recover our lost pilots…" Relena spoke into the microphone. She paused a minute to think about her Heero and held back tears as she hastily wrapped up her speech. "Please support us in this endeavor."  
  
She made her exit in a blinding show of camera flashes, bowing graciously and was met by L6 rep waiting for her just outside of the conference room. "Good job, Miss Peacecraft. I'm so glad that you have gone back to work after being so ill."  
  
"Thank you, Mr Okita," Relena replied curtly not bothering to grace him with her sugar sweet façade.  
  
"Tell the people anything using big words, and they'll follow you into the pits of hell. You'll get your Heero back, guaranteed."  
  
"I'm counting on it, Mr Okita. Thank you." Having said that, Relena made a hasty retreat to her limo waiting outside.  
  
In the safety of the leather cushions of her limo, Relena laid back holding up a picture of Heero that Dorothy had given her. "Oh…Heero," she sobbed. "I know they're doing something horrible to you right now…Heero." She ran her fingers over his half turned face and cried out, "Heero!"  
  
--  
  
An involuntary shudder ran through Heero and he all of a sudden felt cold.  
  
"Are you okay?" the temporary guardian, Beck, asked.  
  
"Un…Tell me more about the duels."  
  
--  
  
"We need to divide, plan to put some operations on hold, pick out the important ones that can't wait, everything like that. Lists will be sent to your homes by the end of the day," Erriji stated leaving no room for question. "Keep in mind that the lists can be changed at any time." Everyone nodded. "Alright, you're free to go."  
  
--  
  
"What is Artax like?" Quatre asked. "He looks so sad."  
  
"I don't really know," Wufei answered warily. "He's extremely quiet, polite, smart, kind of like 'the perfect soldier' with etiquette lessons."  
  
"He would be, I guess," Quatre responded a little sadly. "I would hope that he'd be happier now that he's free."  
  
"Maybe his issues followed him here," Wufei suggested.  
  
"Perhaps…I just don't know. Every time I see him, it just makes me want to cry. It probably sounds stupid to you, but his depression…"  
  
Wufei frowned and eased himself further into the artificial comfort of the couch.  
  
A light tapping on the doorframe brought them out of their reverie. Bijou stood in the doorway smiling nervously, "Lets go home." Trowa and Quatre obediently joined her at the door leaving Wufei to fend against Duo and further ignore Heero.  
  
Like a charm, Duo bounded over to Wufei and took over the spot Quatre had been, soaking up the fading warmth.  
  
"Hey Fei, what'cha up to?"  
  
"I thought it should be quite obvious, Maxwell."  
  
"How're you and Artax doing?"  
  
"Mutual respect, not that it involves you."  
  
"Not in the sack yet, eh."  
  
"I don't plan on it."  
  
"Does he?"  
  
"I've half a mind to wield your mouth shut."  
  
"Heero would never forgive you for that."  
  
"You're disgusting."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"That wasn't a compliment."  
  
"I'm so pleased."  
  
Wufei was ready to gag Duo with his braid or something to that effect when he remembered Artax and the book, Amrita. It isn't so bad…he said to himself. And he remembered that he had yet to read the entire book. Why could he never remember it?  
  
"I hate being here," Duo whined. "I want to be back home and not watched twenty-four, seven. It's so annoying!…Fei? Wuffie? Hey, Chang!"  
  
Wufei looked at him for a split second before returning to his own thoughts. Duo began talking again but he couldn't hear him. He was thinking about his guardian as a person instead of an occupation. Then he thought about the person in the locked room and how insanely jealous he'd been when Artax had been so soft and…loving? For some reason, Wufei was visualizing Artax as a woman, a motherly entity. He thought about what Duo had said before about how "it wouldn't hurt," but at the time Wufei had been in his objective sense of mind. It wouldn't be prudent to develop emotions in such a strange situation. But for some strange reason, that was just what he was doing no matter how hard he tried to think methodically, his thoughts, lately, returned to Artax, what reminded him of his guardian, what it would be like to live with him forever. What would it be like to really touch him? Feel him from his skin to his soul. To know how he works. It was perplexing, his tastes and his secrets. If Wufei had a computer to look up Artax's other life, would he?  
  
"Chang."  
  
Wufei snapped to attention looking towards the doorway where Artax waited. He looked worried, but ofcourse, no one else would notice that. Before Wufei could rise from his seat, Heero got up and in the way.  
  
"You're the best soldier. I want to challenge you," he stated simply.  
  
"Just like that…" Artax asked.  
  
"Just like that," Heero echoed.  
  
"Engagement rules and regulations prohibit such bouts. In 'challenge,' someone must die," Artax said.  
  
"In virtual battles, both parties can walk away without a scratch. I want to fight."  
  
For the second time in his life, Wufei wanted nothing more than to wax the floor with Heero. Rage raced through his veins while Duo just sat pleasantly dumbfounded. There was a long silence where the two combatants to be just looked each other over.  
  
Then it occurred to Wufei that Heero could only assess Artax by his physical appearance until they ended up on the battlefield. Artax looked extremely thin rather than strong. His eyes, though, they betrayed his ravenous intellect. Those eyes, Wufei was extremely fond of. One dark, and one light like good and bad, the ancient battle that could move people to tears.  
  
"I accept," Artax finally said. "Titien will have to help you…it takes a month to set up."  
  
Heero nodded.  
  
"Chang…lets go…"  
  
--  
  
"What exactly is a 'challenge'?" Wufei asked.  
  
"The virtual battle Heero wants is different from a traditional 'challenge.' You apply for it like a traditional challenge, but it's a lot more work. The challenger must create the battlefield. Designing three- dimensional fighting platforms and the like. Or he can use a pre-rendered set and modify it. And he can choose any three manipulative bugs. Adjusting gravity, density, and things like that. It is a lot of work, but he doesn't have very much else to do right now, does he?" Artax explained pushing a rice cake around in his ramen. "It's like a video game, people do virtual challenges for fun. There are nerve readers to simulate pain, so the fight is real to the brain. It's fun."  
  
"…You don't think it's fun," Wufei concluded.  
  
"No. Here, people are trained to be large army…Though not purely for destruction. The idea is to preserve life, not destroy it. However, people die everyday here, not all from old age. 'Challenges' are a regular occurrence. The birth/death rate is one to one. It's steadily been like this for decades."  
  
"While the Alliance populous increases exponentially," Wufei said.  
  
"The Alliance has the advantage of having more people to throw away in a war, but it's their way of thinking that would defeat them in the end. Relena Peacecraft has the Alliance preparing for a war in the name of peace."  
  
"A war?!" Wufei exclaimed and Artax nodded shaking a curtain of hair into his eyes.  
  
"They are using your disappearance as a cover. This colony can't just send you back because hails have already been sent to the Alliance and not returned. It would be a serious infringement on the rules on engagement. The Alliance has fabricated conversations and meetings that have not taken place to make fighting more appealing. As long as there is a reason to fight, no matter how small, how much people know about the suffering of war, they will always come back for more. All the soldiers from the wars before, everyone in rehabilitation will be on the front lines because they know no other life. They hate it but they love it at the same time. It's satisfying to inflict pain on others that may equal their own."  
  
"I don't like it," Wufei said wondering at the same time whether he was telling the truth. "So, what happens to us?"  
  
"You and the other pilots, your fate is pending."  
  
--  
  
"Artax?" Wufei said into the dark where his guardian was sleeping. He was rewarded by a sleepy grunt, and he smiled inwardly. "Can I listen to your music?"  
  
Lazy sounds of sheets and a moving body filled the room, then a quiet click. Soft piano notes trickled out like dew followed by a deep, smooth voice. The song was in Japanese and it was very beautiful.  
  
"Who is this?"  
  
"…K…amui…Gackt…Sakai Story," Artax replied slowly, his voice muffled by something Wufei couldn't see.  
  
Unconsciously, Wufei groped and after a few misses, found Artax's hand and held it lightly. He began to drift off to sleep when he felt Artax's hand grasp his firmly then becoming relaxed again.  
  
The music played all night.  
  
--  
  
"How fast can we put an army together and train them?" Relena asked.  
  
"A month at the least," Rikuro, the L2 vice rep replied. "The people feel a real sympathy for the pilots. We'll get recruits faster than we'll be able to process them."  
  
"A month? That is all I am giving you. And what of our weaponry?"  
  
"We have mass arms from the last war. They are stored in an underground safe house on the east Australian coast," Rikuro said unfolding a map and making marks on it with a red pen.  
  
"I thought everything was destroyed…"  
  
"That doesn't matter now, does it?"  
  
Relena hastily replied, "No…no it doesn't. I just want to get this going and over with as soon as possible. Retrieve the pilots and disarm 666. Two birds with one stone."  
  
"I never took you for one to make such a crude analogy," L2 rep, Alexis called from the doorway. "What are you up to busy little bee?"  
  
"Nothing that concerns you," Relena shot back leaning over the map and making notes.  
  
"I think not. What the hell is with all the news reports? I was not told of all this."  
  
"The Alliance is going to retrieve the pilots," Rikuro said looking at Alexis's slight form standing in the wooden doorframe. He looked fairly scuffed like he'd been running or ready to rip his hair out.  
  
"Bullshit!" Alexis spat. "I don't know what sick games you're playing Miss Peacecraft and the rest of you, but be assured that L2 will not be a part of it."  
  
"Sick games? Wasn't it you that approved the plan to send the pilots to 666 for 'negotiation' in the first place. You knew something was going to happen!" Relena nearly screamed. "And I'm going sick with worry! Heer…the pilots need our help!"  
  
"They can take care of themselves! I am not going to be a part of your sick schemes! I read the 'communication' with 666. I wasn't even here when they supposedly took place! How was I in a conference room and my cabin in Russia at the same time!?"  
  
Rikuro lashed out and caught Alexis's in the stomach with his knee. The L2 rep fell to the ground making barely audible gasps for breath. Rikuro took a kerchief out of his coat pocket and rolled it into a rope, then he gagged Alexis, who was taking his first rattling breaths.  
  
"You're still in your cabin, my dear boy. Two days ago, a pack of hungry wolves came and tore you apart. And now…" Rikuro said kneeling so that his lips touched Alexis's upturned ear. "I am in mourning, but politics cannot wait. So…I must take your place."  
  
With that, Rikuro got up, looking about cockily with a self-assured smile etched upon his face. "My dear boy, you were always too kind no matter how crude. I'll miss you."  
  
Two tall figures stepped out of the shadows behind Relena and dragged the struggling man away 


	7. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
"What are we going to do with them?"  
  
"Do you think that they would fight for us. That would be devastating to the Alliance and they may decide to back down."  
  
"I don't want Chang to fight," Artax said tapping the table lightly not bothering to look up.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because he doesn't know life as an outsider of war."  
  
"And the other pilots?"  
  
"I don't think any of them should fight."  
  
"Didn't one 'challenge' you? I have the application," Erriji said holding up a disc. He inserted it into the table player and the lights dimmed as it appeared on the screen at the head of the room.  
  
"Heero Yuy wants to fight you just because you're supposedly the best fighter," Akasi said as he read through the form.  
  
"I don't trust him," Artax stated adjusting his yellow lens.  
  
Everyone nodded.  
  
"So, lets just go over each pilot and decide what to do with them separately. After we get the general idea there, we will bring them in for approval," Akasi said. "Alright, first is Trowa Barton."  
  
Bijoe shifted around in her seat. "He's very quiet, and passive in making decisions. He does basically whatever his friend, Quatre does."  
  
"So, our focus should be on Winner," Dogon concluded.  
  
"Next, Wufei Chang."  
  
"I think that it would be safest to just let him walk around without someone breathing down his neck. Minimal security," Artax said.  
  
"I trust your judgment," Erriji smiled.  
  
"If Riji trusts you, it's fine with me," Akasi said. "Next, Duo Maxwell."  
  
Titien frowned, "He's really attached to the colonies. I don't think he's going to be very productive here."  
  
"Quatre Raberba Winner."  
  
Bijoe's slouching figure straightened. He's not fond of fighting, I think that he'd of better use in the politics. He's very idealistic and kind."  
  
"Last, Heero Yuy."  
  
Titien pursed her lips and took a deep exhalation, "He's very loyal to the colonies as well, and Relena Peacecraft. It shows in his actions from the past wars. I think he has the capacity to be a very kind person, he's just in his own world right now. Perhaps, purely loyal to a select few."  
  
"So, it's going to be the steady routine for Maxwell and Yuy, minimal security for the other three, and extra work with Winner."  
  
"No confirmed identities on the scientists that designed the current generation of gundams…We find ourselves in a very odd position here, people," Akasi said in his monotone voice and wiping perspiration from his brow.  
  
Everyone nodded.  
  
--  
  
"How do you find all that old music?" Wufei asked while he and Artax ate in the empty mess hall.  
  
"By genre, artist, and then album. It's not very hard. I wrote a restoration…a salvage program. It hacks into the many record vaults scattered all throughout the solar system and copies all the songs, then auto-repairs any damaged ones. I download old television shows also, but I haven't watched any…" Artax explained.  
  
"Will you ever watch them?"  
  
"Maybe, when he wakes up," Artax replied slowly losing interest in his food. He was eating less and less since he was ordered to take charge of pilot 05. "You will be free to walk around anywhere you want to go tomorrow. There will be a tracking device that'll probably be injected into your blood stream, but then you're free to go mess around outside. You, Winner, and Barton."  
  
Wufei felt like he was being hit in the face with a mallet. The security he'd found in being practically graphed to Artax's side was all going out the window. Instead of talking about that, though, he asked, "What about Heero and Duo?"  
  
"They're security risks."  
  
"And I'm not?"  
  
"I trust you."  
  
"…"  
  
--  
  
It felt weird to be outside sitting alone with Quatre and Trowa. They lazed around in operations building lot just staring about. It was mid-morning, and the sun was warm and cool at the same time. Everything was golden.  
  
"…He trusts me…" Wufei said wonderingly running his fingers through his hair.  
  
"It must be hard for someone like him to trust people," Quatre replied sympathetically. "Every time I see him, I see bruises…maybe emotional bruising, I'm not really sure."  
  
Trowa made a face, and then returned to his serene, observing expression.  
  
A million things began running through Wufei's mind. How badly was Artax hurt? How had he gotten that way? And who or what did it to him? "Can you see how it happened? A hint?"  
  
"There are four dark figures in the middle of his mind," Quatre said closing his eyes as if he could see it right then. "All of them in an almost clear reddish liquid. That's all I can see without holding his hand or something like that. He is beautiful from what I can see, though."  
  
"How so?" Trowa asked.  
  
"It may sound cruel, but oftentimes, the most beautiful souls come from the saddest people. It's all dreamily poetic. And then happy people have a kind of hollow, golden beauty. It's all so nice and carefree. I think that most everyone is just so incredibly…wonderful. There is no words to describe it."  
  
"I want to see inside of him..." Wufei said without realizing that he'd voiced it aloud.  
  
"Wufei?" Quatre exclaimed a little surprised.  
  
A light blush shaded Wufei's imperial sculpt face. "It's nothing really. I just want to see what you see."  
  
"Ah…I see," Quatre said blandly barely hiding the fact that he knew there was more to it.  
  
"Lets find some shade," Trowa suggested, "and sleep for a while."  
  
"I like that idea," Quatre agreed allowing himself to be pulled to his feet by his taller lover. "Coming Wufei?"  
  
Wufei grunted and followed them as they made their way to the green jungle like natural fence enclosing the lot and structures.  
  
--  
  
Wufei woke up first and looked around sleepily. It was late afternoon from what he could tell in the dappled shade. Quatre slept in the safety of Trowa's arms a few feet away from where he'd awoken. They looked like a perfect lovers' picture transcended out of texts sculpted by the greatest artist in the cosmos. Wufei longed to have the very same image someday with someone.  
  
It was getting dark and as much as he hated to, Wufei woke up the sleeping couple. Trowa was first to rise followed by Quatre.  
  
"We slept a long time," he exclaimed.  
  
"Yeah, you guys should start heading back before it becomes too dark," Wufei said.  
  
"I understand, thank you," Quatre smiled taking his love's hand and allowing himself to be lead out.  
  
Wufei took his time getting back to the almost empty lot. Five bikes remained including Artax's. So, he sat next to it and kept alert for any sign of his guardian.  
  
Three moons rose in the sky, something that Wufei never got the chance to see. One seemed to eclipse the other while the last one drifted off to the side. Stars flickered like tiny candles in the night sky, all of it so magnificent, he could have stared at it forever.  
  
People came to collect their bikes around the same time. Two girls and two men filed out of the building and took little notice of the Chinese youth sitting protectively around the bike stand. A little while later, very faint footsteps could be distinguished against the night sounds of insects, moving animals, and the like.  
  
Wufei turned around, tired from boredom, and watched Artax approach.  
  
"Wufei? It's late, why didn't you go home?"  
  
Strangely enough, he couldn't quite figure that out himself. Why had he sat outside and waited for Artax when he'd had plenty of time to walk home and crawl into bed? Lucky for him, he didn't have to answer that question as he was hoisted up on the bike and felt the familiar pressure of Artax's body against his back into which he reclined happily like a cat.  
  
"I doubt you've eaten," Artax commented as he kicked off.  
  
--  
  
"How's it coming?" Duo asked as he leaned over Heero's shoulder.  
  
The "perfect soldier" had been working tirelessly on the basic layout of the fighting platform for days. His routine has become: wake up, work, eat, sleep. "The codes are hard to understand. Coming up with a basic, polygonal room takes a long time."  
  
"Why are you even bothering with this? You could just figure out a way to hack this colony's computer system, and crash it. Then everyone can make a good getaway," Duo pleaded.  
  
"Because I can't," Heero replied soberly. "This technology is too complex. There are probably back up systems for the back up systems. And I would bet that there is immunity programs for any virus I could try. This entire colony is virtually impregnable."  
  
"So, Heero is going to have his fun…" Duo sighed. "Can I help with anything?"  
  
"I want to do this alone."  
  
"…I'm bored, and there is almost no privacy here. I miss our apartment."  
  
"…You don't miss the apartment."  
  
"…I know."  
  
**  
  
"Is that person in that room an old love?" Wufei asked as he helped repair Amrita.  
  
"No. He had a few girlfriends…a lot of girlfriends," Artax corrected himself.  
  
"When is the Alliance going to attack?"  
  
"Probably as soon as they can mobilize. The troops will be green, but they won't care. You, the five of you have given them a reason to fight."  
  
"If you sent us back, they probably wouldn't try."  
  
"No, they would just find a new campaign. The Alliance is against development of weapons, so they would develop weapons to rid us of ours. It is all hypocrisy. Start a war to end a war. Take up arms for peace. It is like someone with lit cigarettes dangling from his lip telling others not to smoke."  
  
"How can you be so sure?"  
  
"Why did they bother to send you here in fully armed mobile suits?"  
  
"…"  
  
"Do you like Relena Peacecraft?"  
  
"…"  
  
"Do you like the Alliance?"  
  
"….no."  
  
Artax frowned and patted Wufei on the back comfortingly.  
  
--  
  
"I'm worried," Canine frowned. "We've been taken out of the picture too soon."  
  
"The Alliance is playing a dangerous game," Ash nodded.  
  
"Don't you want to turn them in?" Canine whined.  
  
"Can't," Sonic said, petting Ramah, his owcat.  
  
"Our prior agreement with the Alliance is not to disclose any intelligence with the general public about anything even remotely involving the government," Fair added.  
  
Before Canine could have his input, Wired had his, "But we could always go for 'independent discovery'."  
  
"Meaning that, we can establish contact with the colony ourselves and check things out," Shiva explained. "Use private satellites and things like that."  
  
"You gave that guy, Maxwell a communicator, right?" Ash asked.  
  
"Yeah," Canine said and was cut off again.  
  
" It was probably confiscated, but you can track it," Fair assured him.  
  
"We won't be able to catch any attention with that teeny thing though. Can we make a bug program to search out big communication stuffs?" Canine asked.  
  
"I can rig you one," Sunshine said quietly.  
  
"It's going to be a pain in the ass," Ryoukai reminded everyone. He looked pointedly at Sunshine who seemed sweetly oblivious to him. He never seemed to notice him.  
  
"I'll help you," Fair offered.  
  
"Thanks," Sunshine smiled shyly.  
  
Ryoukai narrowed his eyes at the small exchange.  
  
--  
  
"The Alliance makes the first strike and then I am to draft a speech after that."  
  
"Basically."  
  
"It may take a while. Everything could be over by the time it is finished."  
  
"That doesn't matter. Just as long as you try."  
  
"One more thing, Erriji. If I make this speech, would you let Duo have a walk around? He may not be tactful, but he's not stupid. Trowa and I could keep watch over him if you're still worried."  
  
"That will have to be reviewed by the board."  
  
"I know. How long have we been here…a month? It seems like I've lived here for much longer than that."  
  
"Familiarity. The daily routine here can make everything seem like it has been going on forever."  
  
"I'd like to get to know your politics better."  
  
"We're not a dictatorship, that's for damned sure. When the libraries are through being catalogued and cleaned out, maybe you can take a look if you're not already shipped home by then."  
  
"…Hey, Erriji. Do you know where Artax was originally from?"  
  
"Yeah. It is my job to know."  
  
Quatre nodded and leaned back in the chair opposite Erriji's large metallic desk.  
  
"I'll have Elzia lead you out then."  
  
--  
  
"They are expected to make contact tomorrow…"  
  
"I guess that's right…"  
  
"Artax isn't in the actual fight. He's busy with something."  
  
"That is to be expected, right?"  
  
"I guess so…"  
  
"You don't seem very happy."  
  
"He didn't tell me what he's up to."  
  
"Ah, I see…"  
  
"That must be hard…"  
  
"Probably…"  
  
"Why is it so peaceful here?"  
  
"I don't know, really. It probably has something to do with a nearly ancient balance."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Ask a tree, Maxwell. How do you expect us to know?"  
  
"You're a really sour guy, y'know that Wu-man?"  
  
"Do you think I care?"  
  
"Yeah, you should if you ever have hopes of getting any."  
  
"Oh, thank you Maxwell, hold on a minute whilst I log that vital bit of information away in the annals of my mind."  
  
"You should become a professional jerk."  
  
Wufei closed his eyes and disregarded further comment. The afternoon was too nice to ruin with further bickering, and he was pretty sure that Quatre and Trowa were almost to their wits end with everything.  
  
--  
  
"The first attack will fail," Relena stated blandly. Everyone sat in perfect silence listening to what they already knew. "And that failure will serve as oil for the fire. The public will become upset, and we will gain more support. Our second attack will be an attempt to retrieve the lost pilots. The third attack plan is pending. We have the scientists that made the original gundams at our disposal. The current generation gundam scientists are not creditable and therefore, will not be contacted."  
  
"Thank you Miss Peacecraft," L3 rep, Yonlolen said. "Anything else?"  
  
"Not as of yet."  
  
"Good, moving on…"  
  
--  
  
Alexis lay on his bed, bound and gagged. His eyes were opened slightly and glazed by drugs and the abuse he'd suffered on the way back to and in his Russian cabin. Blood matted his dark hair sticking to his cheeks and eyes. The corners of his mouth were chafed and half-scabbed. He couldn't move even if he hadn't been bound. Red welts shone through the torn portions of his clothing, and blackened bruises decorated his small frame. They'd not touched his face, his attackers. It was a last praise to the aesthetic quality of his features. It was hard to breathe, but somehow, he managed talking small gulps of air.  
  
They left me here to die…was the only coherent thought that Alexis could make. He stared blankly ahead of him at the wall with his ransacked bookcases.  
  
--  
  
Wufei sat next to the locked door of Artax's apartment. He'd found a curious sense of security there even though he might not have favored the occupant inside.  
  
He was on the last pages of Amrita, thoroughly smitten with Sakumi's view of life, when the front door began to open. It was early afternoon, and Wufei was not expecting Artax home for a while yet. Quietly and quickly, he made his way to the kitchen, which was a semi-closed off room that he could hide for a minute or two.  
  
Over the edge of the counter, he saw a dark figure in the doorway, too tall to be Artax and definitely not the lanky form of Trowa since it lacked a smaller partner. When it stepped from the light, Wufei recognized the face of Anthony. He closed the door behind himself and looked around. His glossy, brown hair spiked outward from his head, curling in all directions, a dramatic change from when Wufei first saw him with his hair plastered to his head by LCL fluid.  
  
Cautiously, Wufei stood up and gained nerve reminding himself that Anthony had no right to be there. He summoned a commanding voice, "Common etiquette dictates that one knocks first before being admitted into another man's home."  
  
Anthony faltered a moment and then relaxed when he saw who he was dealing with. "Not your home."  
  
"I live here for now, and you do not. What is your business here?" Wufei asked folding his arms across his chest.  
  
"I came to talk to you."  
  
"Why?" Wufei asked becoming apprehensive.  
  
"Sit down, and lets talk like civilized human beings," Anthony said pointing to the two adjoined beds since there were no chairs in the house.  
  
Wufei complied reluctantly and sat on the edge of the mattress ready to bolt at a moment's notice. Anthony sat next to him, far more relaxed. They both stared at each other, eyes full of distrust.  
  
"Do you love him?" Anthony asked.  
  
"What is it to you?"  
  
"If you do love him, I have another rival to contend with."  
  
"Don't you think that if he reciprocated your feelings, he'd have come to you by now?"  
  
"He's shy."  
  
"And you are in denial."  
  
"You think he's straight."  
  
"No. I just think that you aren't going to get your way."  
  
"You think that he likes you," Anthony accused Wufei hotly.  
  
"I'm not in a position to dictate his emotions, and neither are you."  
  
"I know that. I just want to know what you see."  
  
"It is none of your concern."  
  
"You're so full of yourself. I could hate you."  
  
"And you are so annoying."  
  
--  
  
Anthony would not be removed from the house, so Wufei just let him sit on his bed and went about cleaning the house. He liked domestic chores, and the idea that his casual familiarity with everything was making the other extremely upset. Then he got a bright idea and emptied out the clothes hamper. He and Artax had been sharing clothing ever since he'd arrived, because his duffel bag had yet to be delivered to him.  
  
In the kitchen, he took a deep tub out of one of the lower cabinets and began filling it with water. He almost smiled when he felt Anthony's questioning gaze on his back, but he acted oblivious to the whole situation. Skillfully, he set it down and began meticulously washing one article of clothing at a time. At first, he only acted as if he were paying close and careful attention to what he was doing, lovingly scrubbing each piece in the soapy water, then as the time passed, he really was paying attention to everything. And the more he paid attention, the clumsier he felt which made his resolve to do better all the more strong. Every small detail was important no matter how trivial. The narrowed eyes boring into his back had become a dull buzz in the back of his mind that he paid no heed to. 


	8. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
Wufei sat next to the locked door again across the room from Anthony who had been sitting in the same spot for hours. The laundry had been hung up on the ceiling fan and was drying. Slowly and deliberately, Wufei turned through the pages of Amrita, re-reading his favorite chapter where Sakumi and Ryuchiro went to visit the albino man and his empathic wife. The back of Wufei's neck began prickling, and he could tell that he was making Anthony uncomfortable. He smirked inwardly and gave himself and mental pat on the back for being subtly abrasive without getting his head chewed off.  
  
The click of the door latch brought both boys to attention.  
  
Artax stepped inside his home tiredly, concentrating on keeping his eyes open. The Alliance had folded quickly and that worried him while some others rejoiced. Everything had gone too fast. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blur and took a well-timed stumble forward. Anthony completely missed him while Wufei shot up, dropping the book he'd been reading, and caught him even though he was doing a good job of catching himself.  
  
He slumped a little on Wufei's slender form and looked about with half- closed eyes. What was Anthony doing there?  
  
Anthony seemed to shrink in light of the whole situation, the half- annoyed/puzzled look he got from Artax, and the venomous look he was receiving from pilot 05. He really hadn't thought of a plan up to this point. The moment was extremely awkward all around.  
  
As much as he'd loved to complain about and mortify Anthony, Wufei conjured up an excuse for him, "Anthony came over today to help me clean the house before you got back, and now that you're here," he said with emphasis, "he is leaving. Isn't that right?"  
  
Reluctantly, Anthony caught on. A furious blush crept up his cheeks as he said goodbye and made a hasty retreat. Wufei smirked to himself feeling incredibly smug, and then turned his attention to Artax, who looked ready to sleep in his arms. Carefully, he gathered him up in his arms as much as Artax would allow and helped him over to the beds.  
  
"Are you alright," he asked in a rare show of compassion.  
  
"I'm fine," Artax replied sitting down looking ahead of himself, but not really seeing anything.  
  
"I'll make something for you to eat," Wufei said gently pushing Artax down on the bed and then making his way to the kitchen.  
  
"It's alright. You don't have to," Artax protested sleepily, but Wufei was already hastily putting things together. By then, it was too late, pilot 05 sets before himself a list of tasks and carries all of them through regardless of the cost to himself or how much others protest.  
  
Artax was drifting off to sleep when he heard the soft footsteps of his Chinese charge. He sat up slowly and watched Wufei approach balancing a tray on the tips of his fingers, walking casually as if it were second nature to him. I wonder if he knows how wonderful he looks when he isn't trying to be a gundam pilot…he wondered. When he's guarded, it's so sad…  
  
"You didn't have to go through so much trouble," Artax said looking at the condiments of food: a bowl of rice, an egg, spinach soup, green tea, and a few other little dishes.  
  
"I like cooking," Wufei admitted quietly as Artax carefully ate. "Do you have a television or a vid screen in here?"  
  
When Artax started to get up, bowl of rice in hand, Wufei gently pushed him back down. "No, tell me where it is. You don't need to do everything around here."  
  
"It's on the underside of the floor table."  
  
"Thanks," Wufei said as disappeared beyond the doorframe.  
  
He came back after a few minutes with a clipboard like metallic box in his arms. He stuck it on the wall and stood there questioningly for a moment before messing around with the buttons, magnifying the screen and setting the channels to auto-flip.  
  
"We won the first battle, if that is what you want to know," Artax frowned.  
  
"Really?" Wufei stated more than asked as he reclined on his elbows.  
  
"It was too easy."  
  
"Are you gloating?" Wufei asked.  
  
"No, I'm just saying that it was too easy. There has to be something to it. To why they fought so hard but died all the same."  
  
"Your troops are far more advanced," Wufei reminded him.  
  
"It has to be something else," Artax said.  
  
The vid screen became nothing more than a hum in the background as Artax spoke, "They were all chanting. All of them, I could hear them. All of them were saying 'Heero. Heero. Heero.' Over and over again, even as they died. I have a feeling that the Alliance has turned all of you into war gods…something to draw power from."  
  
"Where were you during all of this?" Wufei prodded.  
  
"I was working. I'm not directly tied to the war as of yet. None of the guardians are."  
  
"What were you working on?"  
  
"Amrita."  
  
"All day?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Where are all the other pilots?"  
  
"Heero and Duo are in the animation sect. Quatre and Trowa are working in the political sect."  
  
"Your duel with Heero is approaching fast," Wufei sighed.  
  
"…Yeah."  
  
"I feel rotten here. Useless…Why do you think that is?" Wufei said looking away from Artax and at the television. He drew his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them. "Everyone is busy with something, benefiting someone else…"  
  
Artax frowned and dropped his gaze staring intently at the pale white of the sheets he sat on. He gathered up his half eaten dishes and left Wufei to think.  
  
--  
  
"A thought just occurred to me…" Artax said as he stared at the bubbling mass of Amrita in the containment chamber. Heliclos exhaled deeply and rolled his shoulders. Everyone else in the room turned their attention to him. "We never tried any normal revival procedures…"  
  
"What exactly are you getting at, sir?" Hannah asked leaning out of her seat. Her curly brown hair tumbling from her shoulders, and her thin legs crossed oddly in an effort to maintain balance.  
  
"A heart massage. Zap her," Artax replied.  
  
"No kidding?" Totoya piped up.  
  
"I'm on it," Heliclos said pulling up innumerable program screens from the med facilities. "I can have a pulse program written for her by…Wednesday. Two days. Until then, everyone gets a few days off to study."  
  
"Hallelujah," Totoya exclaimed pulling on his jacket.  
  
"Bye," Hannah said, already out the door.  
  
Artax watched them leave, and turned back to his computer monitor. "I could write the program," he offered quietly.  
  
"No, sir. I got dibs," Heliclos smirked. "You, my dear boy, are taking a short break from all this."  
  
"…Does it bother you…that it doesn't seem like we're at war?" Artax asked tapping the frame of his glasses lightly.  
  
Heliclos gave Artax a short look of confusion out of the corners of his eyes, "Where did that come from?"  
  
"I'm just curious…" Artax said reproachfully, bowing his head.  
  
"There's nothing wrong with it," Heliclos said lightly to strip away the dark mood. "I just didn't know that you'd be thinking about it. Um…I guess it would bother me if I wasn't told everyday that the colony would be under siege when I least expect it, and I'd have to defend it, yadda yadda yadda. But, the funny thing is that I'm not defending it. I get to sit back here and work like I always do, and hope this bitch will wake up soon before I go awol. Does the war bother you, sir?"  
  
"…It feels like we're in the eye of the storm. Do you think we'd be feeling differently if we were on the front lines? Like it isn't part of our daily routine."  
  
"I don't know. I have this gut feeling that the Alliance is trying to play us for fools, and that's not going to work. This is a situation you'd look up in a textbook. But, the bad thing is that the simplicity of it is bound to confound some people."  
  
"…What if it isn't a textbook war?"  
  
"I don't understand what you're getting at."  
  
"It's nothing…"  
  
--  
  
"What do you want to do today?" Artax asked Wufei who was sedately sipping at a mug of coffee full of cream and sugar. He never cared for the smoke like taste of the stuff, but since coming to the colony, he found it was preferable to moping around the house half-awake after Artax left every morning.  
  
"I don't know…watch tv? Walk…something…I don't care, really," Wufei stated ignoring the prompt twisting in his stomach. His mind was screaming for divine intervention to make his clueless guardian say something hopelessly romantic or glomp him. He took another sip of his chai flavored coffee and leaned back on the wall, reclining further into the bed.  
  
Artax frowned and leaned back so that he and Wufei were on the same level. They sat that way for a while, just staring at the far wall and listening to each other breathe.  
  
"They're starting the second wave today, right?" Wufei asked breaking the silence.  
  
"Yes," Artax replied.  
  
"Do you feel guilty?…about not being on the front lines…"  
  
"It's not my place to decide where I go and when. I cannot feel regret for something that I have no control over."  
  
An agitated sigh filled the room, "I want to work around the house today. Cook…does this colony have a food market, or is all your food rationed?"  
  
"There is a market. I'll take you there, if you want."  
  
"I would like that."  
  
--  
  
Wufei reclined back into Artax's chest, closing his eyes and losing himself in the feel. Every move of his muscles, ruffle of his clothing, hesitation, Wufei felt and savored. A sudden surge of sadness, billowing like clouds, rose up in his chest, clinging coolly to his consciousness like mist to grass. He sank further into the chaste sanctuary of his guardian's tense frame and pressed his lips together, fighting the tightening in his entire body. His vision was slowly becoming hazy, his brows furrowed, and he took a deep breath to calm himself.  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
The words almost didn't register. "I'm alright," he replied sitting up, composing himself. Reluctantly, a smile formed on his lips, and he leaned forward on the handlebars completely befuddled as to why he was feeling and acting the way he was. "I'm alright."  
  
Artax leaned forward so that his chest was resting lightly on Wufei's back, and the bike surged forward making Wufei fall back.  
  
--  
  
It was surprising when they pulled into the lot of a gymnasium like building. The glass of the building was stained green, and the outer wall was overrun with green moss and tiny blue blossoms, presumably of an engineered plant. Artax steadied the bike as Wufei hopped off and stretched his sore limbs, though he wouldn't have minded the ride to have lasted a lot longer.  
  
Artax walked the bike up to the stand and hooked it up. Then he returned to where Wufei was and lead him by the hand even though it wasn't necessary. Wufei smiled inwardly fully intending to make the most of the day.  
  
There was no code lock on the double doors, they yielded easily enough to a whole different world. Small shop stands lined the edges of the building and streams of people mulled about in their various daily chores. Men, women, children, and all sorts of people converging in one spot for a common purpose. And now, Wufei was sharing that purpose with all of them. He'd never thought of it before, not in terms of the whole. It was a comforting thought. Like a warm blanket a mother wraps around her child.  
  
He had no real idea of what he wanted at the market. It was pure impulse that he'd suggested it. A list of dishes ran through his mind that he mentally marked with checks and exes. Oddly, the thought of food made him think of Merian. She never seemed like a mother or a cook, someone he wouldn't want as a wife. He'd admired her as an equal, but never as an arduous suitor. So, why was he thinking of her now?  
  
He shook himself out of his thoughts realizing that he and Artax had been standing in the same spot for a long time. He was a little upset that Artax hadn't said anything, he was just staring blankly at the produce stands. Wufei followed his gaze past some passer by people at the pomegranate fruits.  
  
"You like pomegranate?" Wufei asked.  
  
"I used to eat it on holidays," Artax replied, unconsciously squeezing Wufei's hand.  
  
Wufei gave him a quick look before approaching the stand.  
  
"How much is it for one of these?" he asked looking back momentarily at his guardian.  
  
The aging woman behind the split wood counter grinned with amusement lighting her golden eyes. "Oh, you must be one of them! Boiya, just take what you need. There is no money here. What belongs to me belongs to you and so on and so forth." Her words dissolved into colorful peals of laughter. Men and women tending other stands laughed with her.  
  
"Then, why are there stand tenants?" Wufei asked.  
  
"Oh, we are here to help, boiya. Help you choose the best produce we have to offer. But, very few people ask us anything. Everyone is too happy thinking that they are always right."  
  
Wufei bowed his head, an almost unreadable expression of amusement and pity etched on his face. "Would you give me your best pomegranate?"  
  
"Such a fine young man! Let me look for you," the old lady laughed rummaging through her orange tinted, round fruits. They looked a little like squished globes. "Oh, this is a good one!" She exclaimed picking out a fairly large fruit. "It is of the best quality!"  
  
Wufei graciously took it out of her worn, leathery hands and cradled it in his arms remembering that he'd neglected to bring a bag to carry things in. Then he remembered that he couldn't have known he'd need a bag in the first place. He said a formal goodbye to the old woman, who just playfully shooed him off. He returned to Artax who hadn't moved an inch and took his hand.  
  
Artax was almost disappointingly submissive in the way he let himself be led around, but Wufei wouldn't let that get to him. He simply pressed on, walking down the rows of stalls. When he was getting herbs from a small stand belonging to an old man and a youth confined to a wheel chair, they gave him a bag to put his things in. Feeling a little more than insignificant at the moment, Wufei bowed a little wrenching his eyes away from the girl in the wheelchair.  
  
When he and Artax were walking again, he turned to face him. The humidity in the market was making his hair cling to his face, and his clothes stick to his body. He seemed a little out of place and miserable around so many people talking with each other so happily.  
  
"Do you not like being here?…around people?" Wufei asked.  
  
Artax frowned, "I like it. It's interesting."  
  
"But you feel out of place," Wufei insisted.  
  
"…Maybe," Artax resigned. He gave Wufei a "what can you do?" look and sighed.  
  
It had been a long time since Wufei had taken the time to notice Artax's slight deformity. His miss colored eyes, one so expressive and beautiful, and the other like a target. The diversity between them was alluring to Wufei who took time in considering his next course of action. 


	9. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
"Do you feel out of place around me?" he asked pointedly.  
  
"No," Artax replied warily.  
  
"Then, that's all that matters. We're the only people here," Wufei says, taking Artax's hand. "I don't like seeing you look so troubled. It doesn't fit you."  
  
Artax barely smiled and sighed. "Then you promise me something?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Be yourself more often. A soldier's face does not suit you."  
  
"I don't understand."  
  
"You're a kind person, Chang."  
  
"Soldiers can't be kind?"  
  
Artax grimaced, "I didn't mean it like that."  
  
"I know. I just like teasing you," Wufei replied tauntingly.  
  
"…I know."  
  
--  
  
Alexis managed to scoot off the bed and land with a jarring thump on the smooth, lacquered floor below. It seemed to take an eternity as he inched out of his bedroom and into the hallway, looking around desperately for something to cut himself loose on. His head ached as if he'd downed some of the most-vile alcohol in the galaxy. Dehydration was its own drug and it was working fast on unwinding Alexis's mind. He swallowed though his throat was parched. The grating of inflamed flesh caused him to cough and spurt blood that coated his throat a little soothingly. The taste was metallic and salty, disgusting but strangely comforting.  
  
He entered the main room, which was in a severe state of disarray. To his relief, he spotted the fireplace tools scattered about the room. The edge of the shovel should be sharp enough to cut his binds on, provided that he might find a good place to wedge it so that he could push up against it.  
  
In a sudden rush, he practically hurled himself the distance to the shovel and twisted himself onto his side so that he could take it in his hands. A fresh bruise was forming on his chin when he jarred it upon landing, but he couldn't feel it above the crushing pain of his cranium.  
  
To abate his thirst, he swallowed his bloodied saliva while his eyes searched for somewhere to put the shovel. Using the shovel as a prop, he pushed himself up to his feet.  
  
--  
  
It had been about thirty minutes to an hour spent rubbing his bonds against the edge of the shovel balanced carefully between the cushions in the sofa and he could only feel that blade had gone just a little ways through. When he began to feel the shovel give way, he tried his best to save it, but it teetered back, tipping over the edge of the couch and landing with a deep rattle on the floor.  
  
Alexis sat on the edge of the couch, aching from head to foot from strain on his already broken body. A deep cry of despair issued from his lips. In a fury, he fought to wrench his hands free, and was rewarded by the sound of cloth tearing. His hands flung out from his sides sending droplets of blood flying from his wrists. Too swept up in the euphoria of being half freed, he ripped the rag from his mouth and dove over the couch for the shovel to undo his ankle bonds.  
  
--  
  
"More salt?" Wufei asked, standing over a steaming pot of soup.  
  
"Let me check," Artax replied as Wufei brought the ladle out of the soup and blew on it to cool it before holding it up to Artax's lips. He watched his face earnestly. Carefully, Artax sipped from the ladle and then took it from Wufei's hand, and held it in turn to his lips. "I think it tastes fine."  
  
Reluctantly, Wufei took a sip and contemplated the taste for a minute or so. "…You're right," he said resignedly. They both smiled, small smiles, almost unnoticeable.  
  
--  
  
"Today, the second wave commenced off the shadowed side of Venus. Both sides suffered some heavy losses. There are a few soldiers M.I.A. searches for them will be underway by tomorrow afternoon. Many large campaigns to rally up more soldiers have started shortly after the battle ended today around two P.M. One of these such campaigns is expected to last for about-"  
  
"Ready…set…" Wufei looked Artax in the eyes warily holding his chopsticks up to chin level tensely while his companion had his lifted to just below shoulder level. He looked very relaxed.  
  
The television droned on in the background, as Wufei and Artax sat at the floor table they'd dragged into the main room. Half of the pomegranate fruit they'd been given earlier that day sat cutely in the center of the table, the goal of the tense moment.  
  
"…Go!" Wufei said plucking the red, meaty seeds from the fruit as quickly and neatly as he could. Artax matched his speed, his expression as serene as ever. Soon, every last red seed was plucked from the honeycomb like fruit and both opponents sat still for a while.  
  
"…You got more," Wufei conceded. He swept the empty fruit shell off to the side and crossed his arms across his chest.  
  
Artax studied his pile for a moment before equaling out the mounds with a decisive flick of his chopsticks. "Now we are even," he said as Wufei eased into a more comfortable sitting position, his eyes straying to the television for a minute and then back.  
  
--  
  
After a lazy afternoon of eating, sleeping was not hard to do. Artax, of course, preformed his normal nightly duty of checking on Hyejin before crawling into his bed. Wufei cast a threatened look in the direction of the locked room before turning over and drifting off to sleep listening to the animals creeping about just outside the house.  
  
--  
  
Almost the entire colony was jolted out of sleep by their vid screens flipping on. Wufei had curiously ended up encircled in Artax's arms when he woke up, blinking a few times. His guardian had been awake before him, probably only seconds before with his arm pinned under the other's body.  
  
"Hallo Colony Shix-Shix-Shix," a familiar voice issued from the screen. "We would like to talk to the Gundam pilots, if you could spare them a few minutes. Thank you." The message was repeated over and over again rousing Wufei's consciousness slowly. On the other hand, Artax was already out of bed getting dressed, having slipped stealthily out from under his companion.  
  
"Lets go, Chang."  
  
--  
  
The ride to the main systems building was unusually fast. Artax had no trouble pushing himself, while Wufei was still struggling to become fully awake. For some reason, his guardian seemed a little troubled, but that was easily dismissed as fatigue.  
  
The interior of the building was almost identical to every other working building in the colony, so Wufei saw no point in examining his surroundings. He just let himself be led around twisting corridors and up stairs, then somehow winding up in a fairly large room with a screen taking up one of the walls. Upon entering the room, Artax relinquished hold of Wufei's hand and made his way hurriedly off to the far end of the room where he was a little off frame.  
  
"What do you think this is about?" Quatre's soft, lilting voice asked arresting Wufei's attention.  
  
"Hello Winner…Barton," Wufei said turning to face the pair. They nodded in return. "Heero and Duo are not here yet?"  
  
"No," Quatre sighed. "They must be having trouble wrenching Heero away from his work. Last time I checked, his working hours on that duel program were from seven to four. It's two right now."  
  
"I didn't realize…" Wufei said sleepily, faint sarcasm in his tone.  
  
"Hi guys!" Duo's voice came from behind. Wufei cringed while Quatre turned a little to greet the newcomers.  
  
Out of the corners of his eyes, Wufei watched the silhouettes of the couple come into view. Heero looked disgustingly alert for so early in the morning. Duo looked tired but talked as if it were mid-afternoon. His hair was disheveled, and his eyes were half closed, but he still had a smile plastered to his face.  
  
"Maxwell…Yuy…" Wufei said, nodding in their general direction.  
  
"Chang."  
  
"Wuffie."  
  
Before further comment could be exchanged, a low but commanding voice took precedent over the entire room. It was Erriji looking particularly sour and bedraggled, much like everyone else in the room, "Alright. We're going to open the comm. link. Gundam pilots, please stay in frame," He took a moment to yawn. "We want to make this as short and efficient as possible. Open the link in three, two…"  
  
Three figures showed up on the screen, each taking an eerily familiar shape.  
  
"Canine!" Duo exclaimed, waving lazily.  
  
When the images cleared up, Ryoukai, Canine, and Wired stood in frame. "Oh dear," Canine said putting a hand over his mouth. "I think we've made it through. Good morning, all!"  
  
Everyone back at the colony just stared stifling yawns, while Duo tried to be a little enthusiastic, "hi."  
  
"We're glad to see that all of you seem to be in one piece. Are they treating you well?" Wired asked shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants.  
  
"We are being treated well," Quatre replied before anyone else could.  
  
"That's great!" Canine exclaimed clapping his hands together.  
  
Erriji stepped into frame, then, already tired of the tedium, "Are you with the Alliance?"  
  
"Yes and no," Wired replied.  
  
"Pick one, " Erriji said mustering up all the self-control he could to keep his voice level.  
  
"No, then," Canine said.  
  
"Is there a point in here?"  
  
"We didn't really think of a script for right now…we just wanted to see how the pilots are doing."  
  
"How long will this take?"  
  
"Longer if you keep talking," Canine growled.  
  
"I'm giving you ten minutes," Erriji replied with the same amount of venom before walking off frame.  
  
"Anyway…" Canine sighed. "What have each of you been doing lately? How are your suits?"  
  
"Our suits, we don't know. As for what I've been doing…nothing," Duo said stretching a little.  
  
"Working," Heero said.  
  
"Quatre?" Trowa asked.  
  
"We've been working," Quatre said, taking Trowa's hand.  
  
Wufei pretended he didn't hear the question. He would not tell the entire colony that he'd been indulging in domestic chores for the past month.  
  
Luckily, no one noticed and continued talking. Barely noticeable, Wufei heard his guardian's name being called out quietly. He snuck a look at Artax, who was shaking his head "no" staring at Erriji. It was confusing to see, Artax wasn't normally so uncooperative. After a few minutes, Artax broke away from the small group of guardians and domestic workers he'd been with to walk across the room to his superior.  
  
"Kafka!" Canine exclaimed in mid-sentence. Automatically, Artax's head whipped in the direction of the screen. He looked like someone had just torn out his guts or something, his eyes were wide like a doe's and he stood poised as if ready to run. Of course, only Wufei could see this for what it was while everyone else in the room just saw Artax pause on his way across the room.  
  
"It is you!" Canine squealed, and all eyes fixed on Artax, who stared dispassionately at the screen. "Guys! Guys!" Canine exclaimed waving out of frame. "It's him! It's our baby!" Sounds of about half a dozen mobile bodies filled the room, and soon, all eight scientists were crammed into frame. A few smiled, not being able to help themselves and others just closed their eyes to weather the shock.  
  
Wufei felt like he was being choked, he could feel Artax's emotions like a storm cloud around his head. He stared fearfully at his guardian who glanced at him.  
  
Trowa, also, looked back at Artax incredulously, a thousand emotions playing in his eyes.  
  
"Hold it!" Duo exclaimed. "You know each other!?"  
  
"Kafka ish owur baibyee!" Canine almost cried, leaning heavily on Shiva. "He's been gone for so long! He's grown to be so pretty!"  
  
Artax bowed his head as if he were about to be hit. "You'll not contact him," he said quietly. "You'll not tell his friends. All of you will keep this to yourselves."  
  
"There is still a big bounty out there for you and your friend, Kafka," Wired said almost tauntingly. Artax shrugged his shoulders and stole another look at Wufei, who looked about ready to jump out of his skin.  
  
"Everyone, out. Wufei, go home with Titien," Artax ordered. "Erriji, you stay."  
  
No one moved. Erriji shrugged himself off his resting place on the wall, "You heard him! Get moving!"  
  
Mindlessly, everyone filed out like cattle, including Wufei. Once the door closed behind them, Quatre fainted. 


	10. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.  
  
I wrote this a long time ago, and haven't have the time to look over it. If this is a really trashy fic, I apologize ahead of time. I'm going to revamp it sometime, maybe in the summer. Welcome to the wonderful world of laptops, right?  
  
  
  
  
  
The night at Titien's was nerve wracking. Wufei sat in a corner away from Heero, Duo, and their guardian feeling knots form in his stomach. He yearned for someone to cradle him in their arms and tell him that everything was going to be all right, but he could feel it. The storm was about to break wide open. And it would rain hell fury all over his mind.  
  
He looked nervously about Titien's dwelling that looked by far more extravagant than that of his guardian. Yellow, silken scarves hung from almost everywhere creating a golden canopy above his head, little red, glass angels sat neatly in rows on the coffee table, CDs littered almost every available surface space, and everything was incredibly rich to Wufei's eye.  
  
But, now, after a long time of concentrating on Artax's home, Wufei could now remember how lavishly he had decorated his home. The light gleaming wood that comprised his house and dojo, the white paneling, his weaponry room filled with a diverse assortment of deathly instruments, all his traditional paintings and triptychs, every centimeter of his house designed to his liking. He remembered taking months to select the perfect futon, little things like that. When it came down to himself, his appearance was inconsequential in comparison to his house. The lack of a permanent home during the wars made the need for a perfect home prominent in his mind. He'd take his time in finding the best things to fill his house, right down to the correct spouse.  
  
So, what did it mean, now that he felt so comfortable living at Artax's home where he'd had no control over anything? Did it mean anything at all?  
  
Wufei curled up further into his corner and rested his forehead upon his knees. "…stop," he whispered to the emptiness.  
  
--  
  
Early in the morning, Wufei awoke realizing that he'd fallen asleep in the corner. He looked about finding no one else in the room and then stood shakily, stretching his numbed limbs. A dozen pinpricks bloomed in his chest when he realized that Artax hadn't come for him the night before. After looking the room once, Wufei resigned himself to find his way back to Artax's house. He remembered the general direction it was in. The trail they'd rode on was recognizable enough that he'd know it if he were to see it again.  
  
Experimentally, he tapped the handle to the front door before opening it. He felt a little guilty leaving without telling anyone, but, then again, he wasn't obligated to.  
  
--  
  
Halfway up the familiar trail to the senior complex, Wufei was walking slowly, the once comfortable green t-shirt now clung to his back like second skin, the loose denim pants seemed to way a ton and he began to wonder how Artax ever managed in his. A little shyly, Wufei peeled off his t-shirt and straightened out his hair with sweat slicked fingers before continuing onward. The faint breeze against his skin felt good.  
  
--  
  
"Heart massage in ten…nine…"  
  
"Sir."  
  
Artax nodded but didn't turn to acknowledge the messenger, his eyes riveted to the quarantine room.  
  
"Sir, the order went out five minutes past. Your schedule is officially folded. KaMaahr in one week, and then, you ship out the day after."  
  
Artax held up his hand to silence him.  
  
"One."  
  
A wondrous thing happened. The mass of flesh that was Amrita swelled and contracted becoming a thousand different colors at once. Yellow to orange to red to purple to blue to green, every color imaginable. But, Artax only paid half attention to it while he waited for his queue to begin programming. After a few seconds with his hands hovering over the keyboard, he wasn't feeling anything, "…Again."  
  
"Again," Heliclos echoed gliding around on his wheeled, tripod chair in his little cubicle like working space.  
  
Another shock ran through Amrita blowing her up to unparalleled proportions. The switch in the back of Artax's mind clicked, and he set to the keyboard like a madman.  
  
"Stabilizing…data being locked and processed," Hannah said. "Doing good…"  
  
"…sir, something is happening…sir…sir!"  
  
"…I know," Artax replied projecting himself over to a separate set of keyboards. He could feel the clock ticking down. And his mind was pounding out the message: send! send! send! against the quieter: click. click. click. click  
  
"She's still receiving information," Hannah said.  
  
Totoya was a little more frantic, "She's become unstable. Sir, you should stop."  
  
Hannah gripped the sides of her desk and hunched over, "Keep going, sir. You're almost done!"  
  
Artax stood up hammering his fingers on the keyboard and then returning to his original workstation. "Five seconds," he said.  
  
It didn't seem to happen when it did. All screens went green, then Artax's monitor exploded. He raised his arms right before that glass hit, some pieces caught his cheeks and the sides of his forehead. Small red streaks crisscrossed his pale skin. A white hot but freezing at the same time cloud blossomed in his chest and seemed to flow into his blood, spreading to all of his being. Then, all at once, the feeling vanished and Artax felt oddly calm and aware. He folded his hands in his lap and swept the broken glass shards from his workspace, not caring or noticing the new wounds he was making.  
  
"Sir, are you alright?" Heliclos asked worriedly.  
  
"I'm fine," Artax replied distantly shaking some debris from his shirtfront. "Amrita is ready to be inserted now. But, we need to watch her for a little while, first. Three days under the microscope. Everyone, go home. I'll finish up here."  
  
Ofcourse, Hannah and Totoya left, however, a little more reluctantly than the countless times before when they had practically leaped out the door. Heliclos stayed behind.  
  
"You are sure that you're alright?"  
  
Artax nodded sweeping the glass into his hands and emptying them into the waste chute under his desk. "What do you want?"  
  
"What happened last night with the pilots?"  
  
Artax shrugged, "Nothing. Nothing important has changed."  
  
"But, you're going out to the front lines soon. That is a change. It's important to me, and that meeting had something to do with it."  
  
Both youths regarded each other a moment before Artax with a half-annoyed tone replied, "Amrita was built for the battle ground, so was I."  
  
Heliclos narrowed his eyes.  
  
"…Go home, Heliclos."  
  
--  
  
His guardian wasn't home, which made Wufei want to just throw a fit if he hadn't been so tired. He fell back into the welcome comfort of his bed. He kicked off his shoes and slid out of the pants that currently felt like deadweight hanging from his waist. Then, he crawled under the comforter and stared out at the interior of the house for a little while. He didn't come home…was his last thought before he drifted off to sleep.  
  
--  
  
"What's that?" Duo asked wrapping his arms around Heero's shoulders and resting his chin on the tousled brown hair he liked so much.  
  
"That messenger dropped off a smart chip. I can get this battle plane finished in a few days, now," Heero replied, reaching up and patting Duo's forearms.  
  
"Why didn't they do that before?"  
  
"I think that we're rushing now. There is something here like 'honor bound.' I think that this colony is planning to send Artax into space, but he has to finish all his business here first."  
  
Duo frowned and buried his face in Heero's hair. "Wufei won't like that. I guess…It must have been that thing last night. I wonder what all that was about."  
  
"It doesn't really concern us yet," Heero replied biting back a yawn.  
  
"I guess not," Duo agreed breathing in deeply. "I can't wait to get out of here. I don't really understand how everyone else can be so content to be prisoners."  
  
"They've all found their new, respective passions," Heero replied while leafing through a platform manual.  
  
"Oh, I think I know what you're getting at…Quatre wants to fight for what he believes is right. Trowa wants to learn from Quatre. Wufei…It's so obvious. He's got the hots for his guardian, even though he vehemently denies it. I don't blame him for liking Artax. He's pretty and quiet. But, is one person worth your freedom?"  
  
"He just follows his heart, all the while, trying to rationalize it. I'm sure, if you asked him, he'd come up with something."  
  
"You're right…want me to fix us some oolong?"  
  
--  
  
The bike back home seemed to take forever but then again, all of it compressed into seconds. There was an indescribable euphoria in just breathing that would have struck Artax as odd if he could come down off his high.  
  
The colors of the trees, the blue sky, and the wildlife all seemed to sharpen like computer images and flush with color. Even shadows seemed to move and change hues as if someone were painting everything. A quiet encompassing voice seemed to call from infinity: "come to me."  
  
--  
  
He couldn't remember opening the door, shedding his clothes, or turning on the faucet, but he was standing under a steady stream of water. It felt strange, like every tear like droplet was a metal bead, but it felt so good. Artax closed his eyes and kneeled under the flow. His head felt strangely heavy and he cradled it in his arms. Out of the corners of his eyes, he saw phantom feet touch the ground. Translucent white, perfect feet, leading up to perfect; thin ankles, to perfect legs, perfect hips, flat stomach, small; perfect hands, arms, and Artax's eyes skipped up to the face. It looked so familiar. She was Asian, her imperial nose with that wonderful arch, her defined cheekbones, and reverent gaze.  
  
"Come to me," she beckoned without sound. Her arms opened, and automatically, Artax stood and leaned into her protective embrace. "My child," she cooed silently. For such an odd moment, Artax felt curiously sobered and tired. He breathed in the faint perfume of the woman's skin, an oddly familiar scent.  
  
"…mother," he mouthed.  
  
A small pool of steaming water began to collect on the floor of the shower.  
  
--  
  
The very uncomfortable sticky sensation of moisture roused Wufei. A steady hum invaded his drowsy senses. "…the hell?" he asked blinking the sleep from his eyes. "Artax?" As much as he hated to move when he felt so uncomfortable, he got out of bed and looked around as he stretched. A trail of clothing beginning at the door stuck out leading to the shower.  
  
Wufei yawned and took another look at the line of clothing, then at the shower. There was no fog on it, no indication that it was running. "He wouldn't leave it on…" he mumbled, walking tiredly over towards the shower. Something pale flashed in the glass of the shower. "..was that…shit!" Wufei exclaimed, suddenly awake and frightened out of his mind. He didn't think, he just followed his impulse to kick the damned door in. He socked it a powerful dive kick, and was blasted backwards by the sudden outflow of water. It looked dyed a little pinkish as it flowed out.  
  
Quickly, Wufei scrambled to his feet and opened the door the traditional way. His breath caught in his throat when he saw Artax collapsed in the corner of the tiled walls. He had bruises and the like all trailing from his neck to his stomach. Wufei wasted no time in gathering Artax up in his arms. Carefully, he carried him out to the living room lucky to miss all the scattered shards of glass littering the front walkway. He laid Artax out, not even taking the time to admire the view and began to perform CPR.  
  
After a while, he began to feel desperate, refusing to submit to death's calling. He rained fists on Artax's chest to try to start a pulse, but there was nothing. I'm not losing! His mind cried.  
  
Wufei closed his eyes racking his mind for something to do, for someway to magically make Artax wake up. He jumped, startled, when he heard some gurgling like breathing. Shakily, he rolled Artax over onto his side and patted his back. A small stream of water flowed out from the corner of his mouth. His eyes were still closed as he commenced with uneven breathing, shallow and barely audible.  
  
Carefully, Wufei gathered him up into his arms and cradled him to his chest. Unconsciously, he ran his hands over Artax's smooth, soft skin, not even giving any real thought to anything in particular. He stared blankly ahead with unconnected thoughts running through his mind that seemed a mere background murmur to the ache he began to feel in his chest.  
  
It started as a strong feeling, so strong as to constrict his chest. Then it all just seemed to flow out while the feeling in his chest swelled and intensified. Tears fell upon Artax's bare shoulder, while Wufei struggled to see him through misted eyes. All his creamy white skin, his face, his hair, indistinguishable through the thin curtain of water.  
  
And, even more curious than the impassioned crying was that Wufei soon found himself mumbling almost incoherently to Artax's still unconscious body. "Please, never leave me. I was scared out of my mind. Why did you do that? I can't live without you. You're the most important person to me. Don't do this ever again." And all other sorts of what he might very well have regarded as "nonsense" earlier on in the year.  
  
Some time later, Wufei finally relinquished his hold on Artax's slumbering body and laid him down on his bed. As tempting as it was at the moment, he dared not steal a kiss or cast a lingering glance at all the skin before him. Instead, he took the immaculately white sheets and covered his companion with them, tucking them just below his chin. He took a minute to admire the sleeping figure before thinking of things to do before the other awoke.  
  
--  
  
He didn't really remember returning home, but, somehow he found himself staring up at the all too familiar image of the ceiling of his dwelling. And, there was the faint smell of curry invading his senses. Stealthily, Artax crept out of bed feeling a little sore, which was only a little out of the ordinary aside from his failing memory.  
  
"Chang?" he said aloud hoarsely. Then, he cleared his throat, which helped very little in improving his voice. "Chang…" He peered into the kitchen area and saw Wufei hunched over the floor table, his eyes closed, and his brows knit as if in deep concentration. But, it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out he was asleep. 


	11. notice

I know that this is probably an illegal move on ff.net. . . HOWEVER, I just want to inform everyone that reads my stories that I've moved them all to my own personal webpage: www.geocities.com/tinykitfic/ Why do I do this? Regrettably, I've found that whenever I try to upload anything to ff.net, all the text gets jumbled and wrought with errors making me have to go back and mangle my original in microsoft word in order to get it to show up right on ff.net (I bet this is going to get botched as well.) It's annoying and tedious. I severely detest it. SO, that's why I moved all my stuff. And, I know that you were probably looking for the next chapter of Black Flecked Snow. . . I'm really sorry that I haven't gotten that out. I'm currently rewriting the whole story to fill in the plot holes and fix some of the really really cheesy dialogue. I've already revised the first chapter and posted it up on my page. I hope that you guys check it out( Oh, and if my bandwith is ever miraculously exceeded on geocities, I'll definitely look for a better server (I've already got one in mind, but still debating whether to test it out.) If I do swap servers, I'll be sure to redirect you guys through my personal page. Thank you for reading this~~It means the world to me! The URL(once again) just in case: www.geocities.com/tinykitfic/ 


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